While reading VALIS, I noticed how close in absurdity the debate about God's existence mirrors the real world. Full disclosure: I'm a practicing Catholic, but I have difficulty accepting things about the actions of God, or his presence, as absolute fact. I feel bad, and scared every so often, about my failure to believe in full. I hold a cautionary view: I hope God is real, because death and ceasing to be for eternity sounds like absolutely the worst thing in the world.
After revealing myself as someone who is not entirely convinced or unconvinced about the existence of God, it annoys me to see the fully convinced Christians (and other religious types, I suppose) and atheist spouting off about how right they are and why the other side is stupid.
We see this reflected in VALIS, with Fat and Kevin representing the sanctimonious Christian and the stubborn atheist, respectively. Fat talks endlessly about how he has seen God and must broadcast it to everyone who will be damned if the don't believe, while Kevin makes a flimsy argument about his dead cat disproving God. The absolute head-smashing refusal of either side to acknowledge the other mirrors the real world, both with the Bible verse-quoting people who do not practice what the preach to the counterculture arrested adolescent atheists who make unoriginal jokes about the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
In the end, it is best to just tune everyone out and read a book, until you see this debate in a book like VALIS.
I agree with you. I also think that because of so many different religions out there, it makes one wonder if the religion they have chosen (or were born into) is the "right" one. I was thinking perhaps that was why Fat was in this predicament. If he was able to lump all gods together under one umbrella, and essentially believe in all of them, then he was safe.
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