A Writer’s First Block, and the Iniquitous Realm of Proof

Stephen King once noted that a writer ought to contribute everyday to his work, as he averages something like 2,000 words a day, one can’t really argue with him. I tend to write only during a lunch break, and I can average about 600 words a day for the duration of the week. Today I have found myself staring at the open gaping wound of a chapter I had yet to resolve, a conflict in the lack of conflict. The scene is important, character development, verisimilitude, and the subtle undertone of the ultimate denouement. Yet, it is bothering me… something about the whole scene throws me off… I can’t write today, and ultimately, I have to disagree with one of my writing mentors on the necessity of writing everyday. Today I need some respite from the craft, the intentional, deliberate portion of it to help remind me that I still enjoy it, that I still write because I love to… not because I have to…

Derek’s suggestion of a Moleskine notebook could be chalked up as one of the most significant moments in my life. The notebook is, without a doubt, my most important material possession. In it, the source of all inspirations, the daily musings and ponderings of a fattened mind finally choosing to eat healthy while maintaining the ingredients to satiate the hunger. The notebook serves as the writer’s doula.

Turning to yesterday’s page, what do I see but a simple denouncement of a comment from ChristianPost.net. Indeed, somehow I seem flustered by the tortuously overused argument that the non-believer somehow must go out of his way to seek something that is not there in order to prove that it does not exist. Every Christian seems to lack the ability to really grasp that simple logic, and reading the passage I can sense my frustration on the matter… It should be, and always will be, the burden of someone who makes a claim to prove it… sometimes this proof can come in the form of a well argued logical rationale, most often it is one of the great scientifically valid approaches of testing, hypothesizing, observation, and evidence… no matter what is done to convince someone of the truth of a claim, the onus is really on you to prove it…

This is an interesting line of reason. The world today is not run by the sense of someone saying, there is no God, therefore act this way… instead, there is a tremendous amount of “There is a God, and he wants you to act this way” going on… this is a much different approach to the claim that there is simply no god, or there is a god. The positive claim is then used to garner action and behavior. Elections are decided by this claim. Governments are run by this claim. I am not saying to you so simply, there is no God, I am saying to you, your God does not exist, and therefore I don’t have to act on it.
If there is a secular argument for an action or behavior so be it… but remember these people invoke their God with issues of abortion, stem cells, and homosexuality. They have made the extension of the positive claim, they are asking us to act upon it… you cannot prove the non-existence of something, but you can prove the existence. If your version of God exists, and it is true that he desires the things you says he does, and I have any real reason to even obey this God… by all means, show me.