Faith & Spirit Quote by Edgar A. Shoaff

Skepticism, in Shoaff's framing, isn't a lack of imagination; it's an excess of due diligence. The line lands because it drags a modern, bureaucratic reflex into the oldest possible encounter. An "ID card" is the thin plastic promise that authority can be verified, standardized, and filed. Asking God for one is funny precisely because it's absurd and, uncomfortably, familiar: in a world built on credentials, we trust paperwork more than presence.

Shoaff is writing from the long 20th-century shadow where traditional certainty had been rattled by war, mass politics, and the rise of scientific and managerial thinking. Faith is no longer the default setting; it's one claim among many, competing with ideologies, experts, and institutions that demand proof. The skeptic becomes a kind of secular customs officer, applying the same rules to the divine that we apply to strangers at a bank counter: show me the documentation.

The subtext cuts two ways. On one side, it gently mocks skeptics as people so committed to verification they miss the category error: if God exists, He isn't a guy who forgot his wallet. On the other, it quietly indicts the culture that trained them. When scams are common and authority lies with a straight face, suspicion looks less like cynicism and more like self-defense.

Shoaff's intent isn't to settle the God question. It's to reveal a temperament: the modern mind that can't help turning metaphysics into a background check.