Probably

Slogan of the 2009 Atheist Bus Campaign in London

“It’s probably not cancer, now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

How would you look at your doctor if given such a response to a request for information on symptoms?

“Dec 4, 2011 – Feds say Gulf tuna probably OK after BP oil spill, now stop worrying and enjoy your tuna.”

Did that take the concerns out of the public regarding seafood from the Gulf?

“Probably OK if it wasn't a building site & the amenities were open, now stop worrying and enjoy your vacation.”

Is that the resort you would book for your vacation?

“Kendall's Advanced Theory of Statistics, Volume 1: Distribution Theory” includes:

Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we are not certain.

I can fully understand that anyone, at some time or another, can be uncertain about God. That’s why, though someone is considered a faithful Christian, our faith wavers during life, though we do not express disbelief.

I do find it interesting that a group of atheists would use ‘probably’ rather than the outspoken “There is no god,” often found expressed.

Just remember, whether something is written by a group on the side of a bus or by a grandmother at home on her laptop, they are both SLOP (an acronym for self-selected listener opinion polls), an acronym coined by Norman Bradburn, director of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.  The thoughts we display are most assuredly self-selected and should not be considered the thoughts of society as a whole.

That’s why faith has to be a very individual decision, reached within a person after careful consideration of the information available. Which is why Christians will – and should – be judged for what they do and say.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Matthew 12:36-37 KJV)

What I write here has little value for me.  I could simply read my Bible each day, think about how it applies to my life, consider outside sources and work toward a balance of applicability. However, I’ve read Ezekiel’s third chapter and the story of the watchman has a hold on my heart.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. (Ezekiel 33:6 KJV)

So I write, leaving up to our Creator the probability that anyone heeds.