Mr Lisée,
Following reading your article “Les Québécois, ces miscreants”, published in the Saturday March 30 edition, the following question appeared to me: where would I place myself in a survey about faith?
A dozen years ago, I received a summons to the Montreal courthouse to be a candidate for juror. As you probably know, there are more or less 400 people waiting in a large room. […] You may not be called at all on this day, because when the jury is formed, the crowd is released. But I am called.
So I walk into the courtroom and see that the trial has already started, in fact that the jury selection process is part of the trial. There is the entire court there — judge, lawyers, accused, clerk, and 9 out of 12 jurors are already chosen and in their positions.
The clerk approaches and asks if I want to swear on the Bible before being questioned. I am surprised ! I hesitate a little. The judge then calls out to me like a judge: Mr. Blais, do you believe in God?
In my head, it’s no, but that’s not quite the answer. In spite of myself, and to borrow your delicious expression, I act as “God’s advocate”. Let’s say that it’s a very particular situation to be there, in front of “society”, and to have to justify one’s inner self in public. I therefore speak out by saying that my belief is more in the Big Bang theory. But there, while I am standing in this courtyard, a little intimidated, my thoughts lead me to say out loud: what was there before this Big Bang? “I don’t believe in the gods of religions, but I have to admit that there is a big mystery about the time before the Big Bang! » Those are pretty much my words.
If I tell you this, it is to echo the survey reported in your article. Answering this question from the comfort of home would not have led me to have to justify my “no”. I would therefore be part of the percentage of baptized and non-practicing non-believers. I guess I’m more like the 77% “spiritually uncertain.” But unfortunately, I don’t feel any presence, even in my dreams. I only see the gigantism of the Universe and it blows my mind.
But believing in a saving redemption orchestrated by an entity of goodness would lead me to great optimism, especially in the face of the drift in which the planet and its societies are going.