A Bear In The Woods: about the word Proof

As Jack and Jill hiked up the hill
They found a baby bear.
They lifted it from off the path’
And tossed it in the air.

The bear cub grunted, squealed and mewed.
Such fun, that little ball of fur,
As Jill tossed Jack the little cub
And he tossed it back to her.

Jill thought the little bear so cute,
She clutched it to her heart.
What Jack and Jill were doing,
Do you think that it was smart?

Yes, I composed the above poem myself. If you know of a job opening for a Poet Laureate, I am available.

The muse inspire this poem because of the proofreading I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks; as I worked, I got to wondering about the meaning of the word proof especially as it might relate to the existence or non-existence of God.

As usual when confronted with such a knotty problem, I turned to the best Bible study tool anyone can ever own, a dictionary.

The word proof, my Webster’s 9^th Collegiate tells me carries a variety of meanings. For instance, when we read the phrase 90 proof on a whiskey bottle it means that the actual alcoholic content in the bottle is half that number, i.e. only 45%.

I didn’t know that.

I did know that proof also means a copy of a text made for correcting mistakes. Boy, do I know that! I’m bleary-eyed from proofing two book manuscripts back to back.

But I didn’t know that there are proof coins as well, a set of test coins struck in cheaper metal so the mint can see what the finished product will look like in gold or silver.

Then there are legal, mathematical and philosophical uses for the word proof.

Which brings us back to the baby bear of my poem.

Is it smart to tease a baby bear you find in the woods?

Proof is “the cogency of evidence that compels acceptance by the mind of a truth…the process or an instance of establishing the validity of a statement… something that induces certainty”.

That’s what the dictionary says but I’m stymied because I’ve never heard the word cogency before. Back a few pages : “Cogency: the quality or state of being cogent”.

Well, that’s no help at all!

Back a few more listings: “Cogent: appealing forcefully to the mind or reason, convincing, having power to compel or constrain”.

Oh, I get it.

A powerful force that convinces… say like meeting Mama Bear in the woods.

What Mama Bear?

Did my poem even mention Mama Bear?

Did Jack or Jill see any evidence of a Mama Bear?

No. All they saw was baby bear.

Baby bear is a result; Mama Bear is the cause of that result. (Let’s leave Papa Bear out of the picture for now).

Whenever we see a result, the cause of that result is not far behind. But that cause itself is the result of a previous cause (Mama Bear’s own parents).

When you follow that trail backward far enough, you come to the First Cause of all results.

What could that be?

Here's a quote from an essay in my Gravedigger's Christmas collection:

The Greek philosopher Socrates used a mule, to reason about the existence of God.

It didn't work.

His enemies executed him anyhow — Made him drink poison hemlock.

When Socrates was on trial for his life in Athens, he pointed to a mule plodding past the Theater of Dionysus where the trial was held. He observed that mules never have baby mules. All mules are sterile. Mules are the offspring of female horses mated with male donkeys.

Therefore, the philosopher argued, every time you see a mule, that proves the existence of at least one horse and one donkey. And since all life only springs from life, then those animals must have parents too.

Then the parents must have parents and so on an on till you come to an original source of life -- God.

When you see any effect, you know it must have a cause, and the First Cause of all effects is God, Socrates reasoned.

"Who in the world would believe in sons of gods if they did not believe in gods," Socrates asked? "That would be just as odd as believing in sons of horses or asses, but not in the horses or asses themselves!"

His enemies responded to his reasoning with a sophisticated argument of their own.

"Here, drink this. It won't hurt a bit," they said.

Theologians say that Socrates' mule illustrates an ontological argument for God's existence.

But, while some folks say that the First Cause is God; others say the first cause is the universe per se.

Either way, it’s not smart to tease Baby Bear.

This is getting long and I’m getting tired, haven’t proved anything, so — unless I’m inclined to blog about raking leaves in my yard (my chore for today) — tomorrow I’ll kick this line of thought around some more.