An Atheist Most of the Time(Not All the Time) //Haylee Lynd

     Hulga states she is an atheist, but she makes a claim to her mother regarding a philosopher that shows she may not be entirely an atheist. One night at the dinner table, in response to her mother remarking that a smile never hurt anyone, Hulga stands up "with her face purple and her mouth half full" and says,"Woman! do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? ...Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not our own light!" (276).  According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Malebranche is a 17th-century French philosopher who famously argued that 'we see all things in God.'  Malebranche's argument that "we are not our own light" means the human mind is not a light unto itself, and that God is the only true light. This means Hulga is saying to her mother that she is not reflecting God. Her expectation is for her to look inside and align back with God's light, which would mean Hulga is acknowledging and inclined to God. She believes in Malebranche's position enough to yell it at her mother.

    Overall, she is an atheist. She believes mainly in nothing, but in this moment, she seems to not stick 100% to that belief in nothing she claims so many times.

P.S. I commented on Abigale's and Josh's posts.

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