Epistemic Commonality or The Experiences We All Share

Well, as of 3pm yesterday, I'm officially a dork (as if I wasn't one already). I spent about an hour or so of my afternoon revising a philosophy paper. Why am I wasting my time editing a paper I already turned in and made a 95 on? Well Michael (aka: great M-Rice) was reading that same paper about a week before school was out, and before finishing the first page, he carelessly tossed it to the side. Slightly perturbed, I picked it up and began reading. After reading the first half of the first page, I stuffed the paper into my backpack, disgusted by the writing. It was chock full of grammar errors (I'm glad this paper wasn't for an English class) and a whole lot of jargon that would not have made any sense outside of the fourteen people in my problem of evil class.

So yesterday I got this paper back out to see if I could improve on it, and I believe I did to an extent, but while rereading what I argued on epistemic situations (epistemology, in a few words, is the study of how we know things), I realized how strange it is that each individual has such drastically different beliefs. If we look at the average upper-middle class American, our experiences have many similarities. We have all had absolutely fantastic days, and absolutely horrible ones. We have all experienced love to some degree. Not necessarily romantically, but through family bonds or a close friendship.We have all -- or will eventually -- lose a loved one. I'm making some bold, sweeping claims, because we also have to bring in situations such as child abuse. But there is still a common human experience -- filled with both pain and joy. So how is it that there are so many different beliefs in regard to God? And not only are the number of various beliefs impressive, but the fact that these beliefs are well founded is astounding. One of the biggest things I learned in my problem of evil class is that atheist are not idiots. Although I never really felt that way in the first place, I never fully understood or respected their position until this semester. It appears that God has struck the perfect balance in regards to keeping the absolute certainty of His existence ambiguous so that we may all choose to freely worship Him or deny Him.