The end of a delusion

My career as a writer was inspired by the word delusion, more than any other word which can be found in the dictionary.

Delusions are defined as “fixed false beliefs or opinions” that are resistant to reason even when confronted by actual facts.

For this reason, the term is frequently used to describe symptoms of mental illness.

The book The God Delusion by renowned atheist and biologist Richard Dawkins was the inspiration for my first published book, Divine Evolution, after I heard Dawkins say in an interview that cars, computers, and even his book were all intelligently designed, but human beings were not.

I still haven’t gotten over the absurdity of his comment — I began learning about computers while matriculating as a student at UGA, which was followed a long career as a software developer before becoming a professional writer.

So I am well aware that the capabilities of an “intelligent designed” computer actually pales in comparison to the human brain, that DNA is exponentially more complex than computer machine language, and that the “software” that operates the human body works independently of our conscious brain is infinitely more complex than the source code for Google’s search engine.

Richard Dawkins made it crystal clear in his book that he believes supernatural phenomena does not exist. According to him, only the “real” or material world exists — no gods, devils, ghosts, angels, or demons. No miracles, no answered prayers.

Of course, I couldn’t write Divine Evolution until I’d done quite a bit of research into the science of evolution theory and then tackled Dawkins’s objections to belief in a God, which I think can be adequately summarized in a few sentences, this way:

There are two possible explanations for the existence of a human being.

Either creation by a supernatural God as described by the Bible is true, or evolution theory, as described by Charles Darwin is true.

The evidence for evolution theory is overwhelming. There is no evidence for special creation. Therefore, evolution is true, and no gods exist. Anyone who believes in a supernatural God obviously must be suffering from a form of mental illness.

Those people are science-deniers.

A couple of significant problems are rather easily identified with the very simplistic worldview of Richard Dawkins. First of all, Dawkins is a professional zoologist and biologist, not a psychologist or psychiatrist. He simply is not qualified to evaluate mental health or diagnose mental illness.

The real argument is whether or not existence may occur by descent or design. The suggestion that our “choice” to believe in a God boils down to a choice of creation over evolution, and faith over evidence, is a false dichotomy for this simple reason:

Life cannot evolve until it exists. If we assume evolution is true, it could only become a factor in the emergence of life on earth after God (or incredible good luck) caused this universe to exist and the first living organism to form.

However, in order to challenge Dawkins’s interpretation of science with any sort of credible counterargument, first I realized that I had to better understand the arguments and evidence for evolution theory. Years of voracious reading that began with Divine Evolution continued for several years as I became the Atlanta Creationism Examiner sort of peaked after my book Counterargument for God was published in 2013.

I still read every article and post I find online promising new information about scientific discoveries related to our “existential” questions, but until a credible challenge to my counterargument for God and what I have coined “iterative creation” is published, I don’t anticipate the need to write future books on this subject.

It is the atheist who must deny science, in the growing body of evidence known as corroborated veridical NDE events. This is a phenomena in which information has reportedly been learned by an individual while the physical brain and spiritual “mind” were literally separated. That new information may then be investigated and either confirmed or refuted.

Critics of this scientific evidence complain that the “near death” aspect of this information automatically makes it highly suspect.

This much is true — extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and they should.

In the body of research work compiled by Drs. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Raymond Moody, Melvin Morse, Sam Parnia, Pims van Lommel, Bruce Greyson, and many others, extraordinary evidence of this phenomena does exist. The cases of Pam Reynolds. Michaela Roser, and Colton Burpo are only a few of the more compelling examples of people claiming to learn new information while their normal senses were incapacitated and it should not have been possible.

My work has led me to conclude that if anyone is “denying” science, it would have to be people like Richard Dawkins, and not me because I don’t deny the existence of any scientific evidence.

Currently I’m focused on writing my “Rocky Leonard” crime fiction and detective novels because logic, reason, and scientific evidence supports my counterargument to atheism very effectively. There isn’t enough left for me to say about it to merit another book on the subject.

In short, my belief that a supernatural creator probably exists is not a delusion and therefore has not ended. On the contrary, my belief in God keeps getting stronger, growing toward conviction, as new evidence comes to light.

Yet as the title of this article implies, I suspect the end has come for a rather silly personal delusion, inconsequential compared to the question about belief in a supernatural God — a rather pleasant delusion about what it meant to be a proud fan of Georgia Bulldog football. I was deluded to believe that something existed known as “The Georgia Way”.

The Georgia Way meant winning with integrity, not at all costs. Sadly, that seems to have been a fixed, false belief.

While most people would argue that Mark Richt was fired because Georgia lost to Florida this year, I would strongly but respectfully disagree.

I believe that the firing of Mark Richt became inevitable when Todd Gurley was suspended last year for four games, and Georgia subsequently lost an important game to Will Muschamp and a bad Florida Gators team. That one loss cost UGA the opportunity to play Alabama for the SEC championship, and probably cost Mark Richt his job.

Nick Chubb and Sony Michel played well that game, but Todd was an experienced, very talented running back now dominating the NFL as a rookie. He could have made the difference.

While it isn’t guaranteed that Gurley would have changed the outcome of the game, it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to have him on the sideline in uniform. Remember, only a few days before the game, the NCAA ruled his suspension would be upheld, which deflated the team’s attitude.

If you want to blame Mark Richt for his players acting like human beings, fine. It won’t any difference at this point. He’s already been fired. What’s done is done.

Numbskull Jeff Schultz from the AJC suggested that Greg McGarity should have replaced Mark Richt with Jimbo Fisher instead of Kirby Smart, ostensibly because Jimbo has won a national championship at FSU, which in his pea-sized brain, automatically makes Fisher a better coach than Mark Richt.

With all due respect, this is why Jeff Schultz needs to find another job. He just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s true that under the “leadership” of a Jimbo Fisher, Todd Gurley would have probably been counseled to deny the allegations he’d been paid for his autograph, in clear violation of NCAA rules, and could have avoided the four game suspension.

But let’s be brutally honest here for a second — Jimbo Fisher and the word “integrity” have no business being mentioned in the same sentence.

He has grown accustomed to his university covering up rape allegations against his student athletes. While boosters and powers-that-be at UGA seem to have now become desperate to win championships, I don’t think they’ve gotten quite that desperate yet.

Jimbo Fisher is the antithesis of The Georgia Way.

I’d like to think that an athlete with the questionable character and unacceptable behavior of a “superstar” athlete like Jameis Winston will not be tolerated in Athens by Kirby Smart any more than Mark Richt would have put up with his antics, had he been the coach at Florida State at the time. But Mark Richt would have never accepted a player thrown out of Alabama for physically assaulting his girlfriend into his program, either.

I am a Georgia Bulldog.

It isn’t as simple for me as simply choosing to like another football team if UGA starts bending all the rules in order to win.  I graduated from UGA in either late 1983 or early 1984 — my memory is a little fuzzy because I had a little bit too good of a time as a student in Athens.

So I will always be a Georgia Bulldog.

And I’d like to believe that in the same situation as Todd Gurley’s head coach, Kirby Smart would give the same advice that I believe Mark Richt gave — to tell the truth.

Actions have consequences. Even if the lie succeeded and no playing time is lost, what message was being sent to the student athlete? Should we only view them as commodities that can entertain us on the field of play, but as young men being shaped into mature adults?

Johnny Manziel almost certainly lied to the NCAA about the same offense Todd Gurley admitted — signing autographs for money. The only difference between their two cases is that Todd Gurley admitted what he did.

And obviously, Manziel got away with it in the short run– he was only suspended for one half of football, not four full games like Todd Gurley.

However in my opinion, Coach Kevin Sumlin did Manziel a great disservice by failing to discipline his player and apparently turning a blind eye while Manziel lied to the NCAA.

But can anyone claim that Johnny Manziel learned from his mistakes in college? Apparently not. The Cleveland Browns recently demoted him to third string for lying to his coach.

Later, when he was drafted out of Texas A&M, Manziel slid to the bottom of the first round, presumably because teams had questions about his character and work ethic, not his talent.

Conversely, Todd Gurley was taken with the tenth pick in the first round by the St. Louis Rams, despite the fact Todd was still in the process of rehabilitating after surgery for a severe knee injury. In spite of missing several games at the beginning of the season, Gurley remains a strong candidate to win the 2015 NFL Rookie of the Year.

Teaching Todd Gurley to do the right thing may have cost Coach Richt his job, but it was the right thing to do for his player. Win with integrity, and lose with dignity.

Now I hate losing just as much as anybody, maybe more. Still, no one will ever convince me that it’s better to cheat (and win) than to lose a game.

I don’t care what Vince Lombardi said — winning is NOT everything, and the only thing. It does matter, how you play the game.

One thing will never change — I will always be a Georgia Bulldog alumnus.

I sincerely hope that I can also remain a fan of the football team, but that currently remains to be seen. A lot will depend on where we go from here.

I’d be lying to you as badly as Greg McGarity has been lying to every Georgia Bulldog fan since November 29th, and that has been every time his mouth has moved. It’s hard to have confidence in leadership that doesn’t even care enough to lie convincingly.

I’d like to believe that Kirby Smart can win national championships “The Georgia Way”, but I’m not quite sure what that even means anymore. Is “The Georgia Way” now going to become coaches screaming profanities at their players on national television at the top of their lungs?

I’m not sure how proud that’s going to make me to be a Georgia Bulldog. Instead, I’m afraid that I’m going to be very embarrassed by Will Muschamp on our sideline.

Mark Richt was more than just a great though under appreciated coach. He has been a terrific leader who turned overgrown boys into mature young men.

I will miss seeing him lead the Georgia Bulldogs. My delusion was that I thought “The Georgia Way” meant doing things the right way, which was the Mark Richt Way. Silly me.

It remains to be seen what “The Georgia Way” will now become, and how many corners leadership will cut to win at all costs. I guess I’m in the small minority of people who thinks maybe UGA just made a terrible, disastrous mistake.

I have nothing against Kirby Smart…well, that’s not exactly true. I still haven’t completely forgiven him for turning down the defensive coordinator job in 2010, leaving us stuck with Todd Grantham. He could have proved it really was his defense, not Nick Saban’s, winning all those national titles for Alabama.

But his loyalty was not to Georgia. He stayed at Alabama, and Georgia lost the 2012 SEC Championship game to Nick Saban, with Smart coaching the defense on the wrong sideline.

And now he’s coming to UGA with zero head coaching experience. Please forgive my pessimism (especially because it isn’t normally part of my nature) but I see more risk than reward with these decisions by those UGA fans who sit in the skyboxes and own the program.

I certainly wish the best for Kirby Smart, but my expectations must be tempered. He’s got huge shoes to fill.

I hope I’m wrong. I wish I could be more optimistic about the direction UGA football has taken, but at the moment, there’s only one thing that could make me feel better right now.

Fire Greg McGarity!