Before reading this Essay, please read the following carefully.

If your faith is strong and helps you to go through your problems, do not read the essay, please. You do not need it,  it can only hurt you. It is a long and tedious article with many details, all of which could have the same effect on you emotionally as being thrown into ice cold water. You would be shocked, you would be upset. You could be very annoyed, certainly disturbed and your faith damaged. This is not my wish.

The relation of secular reason with personal creed and faith is closely related to the principle of a Separation of Church and State. In the interest of peace and the welfare of all, it is an absolute necessity to respect this separation. It is a principle in our Constitution, it is based on very good reasons, and has been given us by Jesus Himself (Matth. 22/21).  For our own benefit, we should also keep a separation between Belief and Reason, if this belief is the source of your faith. A strong faith is too precious for our life to be put at risk. Therefore, do not test it. I urge you to avoid this essay. Without need, you would not take a very strong medicine that could poison you. I am very serious about this. Please go back to the Overview

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On the other hand, if you have reasons to disregard the above quoted advice and think that your faith must overcome reason and be imposed on others, it could be very useful for you to read the essay. If you have nagging questions about your beliefs, and experience the uncertainty as painful, that also would be a serious problem. I think myself that I need to be sure about where we stand in this world. If you think you must answer these questions, even at the price that it will make you aware of how precarious our life really is emotionally - in this case, the experience of reading the essay may be helpful and could lead to a substitute for faith in the traditional sense. My exposition follows plain reason and what I found as pertinent from science. As I said in the Overview, this has been written for my own clarification and I do not promise or urge anything. The text must stand on its own.

However, I urge you to read the "Discussion" at the end of the essay on Truth.  I hope it can convince you that we must respect the above principle. We must protect the right of everyone to believe and practice his own religion.  A militant atheism is as misguided in our society as any militant religious zealotry.

Here is the essay: Plan or Necessity

12;01;2008       GW.