Classes have begun with the usual blend of confusion and promise.
We have been given a gift today, the execution of Paul Hill,
the notorious abortion-doctor killer who said that he was acting according
to the word of God.
How does one know that one knows what one knows?
How does one know what is real?
Where do the voices that we listen to come from anyhow?
Putting down any belief as obsessive is far too easy. After all, we all have to believe something
in order to get through any day. Passivity is not an option, other than after suicide.
If we must act, then we must have some basis upon which to act. What exactly?
Paul Hill thought he knew the will of God. SO did Charlie Manson. But so also did John Brown
and Martin Luther King, Jr. and others we revere as saints.
How does anyone know?