Fictional Logic

A few months ago I was in between book club books - finished and turned one in, hadn't made it by a different library to pick up the next one yet, so I picked up a book from my "Want to Read" shelf.  I've already got them organized in the basic order I want to read them and I was in a hurry on my way to work so I just grabbed "The Baron's Apprenctice".  I think I picked this book up at my church rummage sale after it was over and they were just begging people to carry stuff off so they didn't have to deal with it.  The back of the book made it sound like a genealogy mystery with maybe some history and romance mixed in.  Once I actually started reading the book there were a few pages up front that explained how the author had already done several books like this one that were retelling Scottish or Irish folk stories.  It also went on to talk about all the religious basis and how this is the third book in the series of a central character and demonstrated the religious growth of that character.  

Okay, well, I'm not anti-religion so I'll keep reading; it's all I have available at the moment anyway.

So the book was a little dry, the print was tiny, and the wording was antiquated.  But underneath it all the story was enjoyable.  

What was most intriguing to me is one character who is mad at God because her son, the one of her three children she loved the most, was taken from her.  She doesn't think there could be a God if cruel things like that happen and shows up at church every week to sit in her pew and read trashy French novels.  The priest visits her at home and points out that if there is no God then there is no Heaven so then her son must be where, in  Hell?  She was shocked that the priest would imply that her son was anywhere but in Heaven.  However, he points out, if she wants to believe that her son is in Heaven, then there must be a loving God who welcomed him there.

The author said it more eloquently than I but I believe I captured the concept.  While I can't say I personally have known anyone who feels this way, I know people who know people who do.  If I ever have an opportunity to speak to such a person I hope I remember this logic.