A few months ago, I received word that Tom, a long time and stalwart member of my atheist discussion group, had passed away.  He was 94.  I liked Tom a great deal and miss being able to talk and banter with him.  His mind was sharp almost to the very end.

    Tom frequently stated his conviction that, given the order and complexity of the universe, there "is an intelligence" from which it came.  But he either could not or would not describe the nature of this intelligence, just to say that its presence was a necessary assumption for understanding the meaning and nature of the universe.

    I of course agree with Tom, that the fact of the universe necessitates positing the existence of something larger and considerably wiser and more powerful than we out of which it came.  Though precisely how this happened is the subject of much debate, what is beyond debate, for me, is that we cannot picture the universe as it is today without acknowledging that, despite the claims of many cosmologists, it could not have emerged out of nothing.  Personality doesn't simply come to be.

    We live in an intentionally birthed universe.

    Thanks, Tom.