says our great grandma, there are three coins in the fountain. The question is: which one will be the fountain bless? The three coins I am referring to are theism, atheism, and agnosticism. Theism is an affirmative theory. Atheism is a disaffirming theory. Agnosticism, it seems to me, is a kind of ‘I don’t know’ or ‘don’t ask me’ non-theory of sorts. Which one would you choose? Our great grandma is asking her great grandchild.
Consider, says great grandma, theism offers a much bigger and more interesting package than all the rest. It has many goodies in it, consisting not only of God, but also winged angels, devils with tooth and claw, if not also lesser spiritual beings such as fairies and ghosts (this last is actually not too nice a label for departed soul, I must say). Now, for his child-like impression that more is always better than less, our great grandchild is of course naturally more impressed by the big theistic package. But he is also a bit worried about what those other not-so-nice characters might do. Don’t worry about them, says great grandma. Just be a good boy, and everything will be fine.
In contrast, continues our great grandma, atheism does not really have anything to offer. It just says that there is no God. As such, it has also found this ‘empty’ niche to be quite comfortable. Since there is neither proof nor evidence for the non-existence of anything, this disaffirming ploy is already good enough to ward off those who might ask him to justify his position. Thus, the only way for the theist to out-smart the atheist is to try and invite God to confront him. But so far, the theist has not really done anything of the sort. All he did was to point to some subjective