McCarthy's Proof

Peter J. Leithart, August 21, 2006

At the end of the film version of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, the principal character, Cole, asks whether God exists. Cole has been through a infernal trip to Mexico - his lover is taken away from him by her family, he watches a companion get shot, endures a brief stay in a Mexican jail where he is beaten and knifed. Does God exist? Cole says something like "I guess he must. Otherwise we wouldn't survive a day." In the face of human cruelty, folly, and pain, the sheer fact of human survival counts as a theistic proof.