From an article I'm working on.

The Wall

Imagine a young person eagerly and optimistically searching for truth. Imagine they eventually reflect as follows. Life is uncertain and, at times, painful. Fatal diseases sometimes take lives, even the lives of babies. During World War II (1940-1945), the prime occupation of many nations was building devices to kill people. During that war, about 70 million people—70,000,000 people—lost their lives: others were injured, physically or mentally. Today, war and the threat of war remain. Weapons exist that can destroy all human life on Earth. As it did with the dinosaurs, the universe may one day wipe all humanity from the face of the Earth.

On the personal level, I am an infinitesimal speck of matter in an unimaginably vast universe, existing for less than a microsecond compared to the lifetime of a star. If I lack a deep self or my deep self doesn’t survive death, then my existence seems as ephemeral as a water fountain’s spray, as meaningless as a soap bubble.

We picture these thoughts as forming a “wall”, a barrier that impedes the continued search for truth. The wall may seem intimidating, even terrifying. So, some people leave their search for truth at the wall and simply live their lives day to day.

Other people retreat and adopt an Old Theology religious faith, perhaps the faith of their childhood, where God has a special love for us, where God protects us and never lays a burden on us which is too hard to bear, where God-inspired writings tell us how to live; where Church and State cooperate to create (as we described above), “a small, snug, secure world, a cocoon—a shield against an unimaginably vast universe.”

But existing religions disagree and use an inferior way of knowing that often leads to untruth; such religions serve State but not necessarily truth.

A continued search for truth may require going beyond the wall as New Theology attempts to do. New Theology accepts science’s view of the universe and aims to uncover truth, but truth may or may not provide us with a comfortable worldview or the strength to cope with life.

Have many individuals stood where we stand now? Did their search for truth lead them to thoughts that seemed true but uncomfortable and subversive of the dominant worldview, subversive even of the very idea of their own existence? Did they see these thoughts as forming a wall, a barrier? Did they then turn back and retreat into the comfort of some Old Theology religion, a religion that puts faith above reason? For if the light of reason uncovers disturbing truths, one solution is to turn off that light. Seen thus, miracle stories, obvious scriptural contradictions, and farfetched dogmas that defy reason are not bugs but features. At weekly meetings, refugees from reason gather and reaffirm their reason-denying beliefs.