Father and Lather

I am a proud father, and now the proud owner of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, a book by pediatrician Meg Meeker. I'm sure it contains sage advice, but I've yet to read it from the beginning - I couldn't resist first diving into the chapter Teach Her Who God Is, because I thought I might learn something on that score. Wrong. A quick excerpt from the good doctor:

"...imagine you are walking out of [your sleeping daughter's] bedroom. Could you turn around and look at her and believe that the sum of her existence rests in a mass of cells? ...this is how a rank secularist [sic.] is obliged to view his daughter. She is nothing more than a genetic product of his and her mother's DNA. The puffing of air though her tiny chest keeps her alive. Your time with her is...purely a biological phenomenon. Her thoughts and feelings can be traced to neuronal firing in her brain... I can't imagine a father feeling this way about his daughter."

I can't imagine how this paragraph got past the editor. I - a "rank secularist" apparently - do think "puffing air", amongst other things, keeps my daughter alive (I would prefer "breathing", however, as inhaling is rather vital) - am I wrong about that? All mental events have been (or will be soon) traced to neuron firings - scientists call these the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) - are they wrong? Maybe it's just me, but I don't think of time as a biological phenomenon (except, maybe, when it's time for a nap!).

Zoe is indeed a mass of cells and a genetic product of her mother and yours truly. But "nothing more"? Well, physically nothing more, yes of course, but just because I am an atheist doesn't mean I treat my daughter as if she were a tree, which is also a mass of cells. Why does Dr Meeker think I do? Non-believers, believe it or not, have feelings too, you know! We cry, hug, get angry, think certain things are right and others wrong, grieve, love, lust, have longings and laugh just like everyone else. We have values and even think raising daughters right is important. Why do believers think they corner the market on this stuff?

"When you look at your sleeping daughter, you are confronted with a spiritual reality you can't deny", pre-empts Dr Meeker. When I see"spiritual reality " I am confronted with an oxymoron. Yes, I can and do look at my sleeping daughter with awe and wonder. Actually, I look at a lot of things with awe and wonder - like the fact that the brain contains 10 billion neurons, many with 10,000 connections to other neurons. Or Einstein's amazing 1905 output. Or the Eiffel Tower. Or the Rockies (mountains and baseball team). I love non-fiction because it's so much more awesome than fiction. But can't things just be awesome without dragging God into it? Does that add to, explain, enhance or amplify the awesomeness? "A man can banter with his friends about whether God exits. But a father looks at his daughter and knows." Knows she is going to be trouble at some point, knows he better start saving, knows he's got a lot of precious moments ahead, yes. But the argument from looking-at-one's-sleeping-daughter as a argument for God? Sorry, non-starter.

I do hope Dr Meeker doesn't think I am "rancid, putrid, festering" secularist, though. I do apply soap regularly - after all, I think it important enough to keep this mass of cells clean and sweet-smelling!