My brother was never one to believe in God. He’s called himself a pessimistic agnostic and an atheist; certainly never a believer. I think a lot of this has to do with his dyslexia.
You see, like many others with obstacles in life, he couldn’t see the existence of a benevolent, loving God while there was suffering in the world, especially his own. The struggles he had with reading and school and the teasing he received at the hands of his educational peers was difficult to come to grips with as a young child. Even as he matured and grew and his now-adult peers didn’t bully him for his disability the seeds planted by this early emotional trauma had bloomed and taken root in his psyche. His feelings of there not being a God were firm and seemingly irreversible.
Then he adopted a Boxer whom he has loved for many years now. This bond, I believe, has made him question his previous assertions on a greater being. As the old saying goes, “God is love.” And his love and affection for his beloved pet, a life also created by God, has made him see the world in a whole new light. Perhaps he is changing his theological viewpoint.
In fact, just the other day I heard him singing, “MY DOG IS AN AWESOME DOG…’
(Insert drum roll here! I told you is was long, not necessarily funny.)
