Current mood:
productive Category: Religion and Philosophy
-Friedrich Nietzsche
After watching one of my favorite movies The Skeleton Key then followed by a quick glimpse at another favorite Constantine I started thinking about the notion of truth and belief and how these things are interpreted across cultural lines. Thinking about what people believe and the idea of belief is interesting to me. I mean what does it mean to believe in something? When does belief really begin or end?
Consider this. A wise and handsome friend of mine ( He told me to say that. Lol) posted on his Facebook, “You can never end relationships. Once begun you can change, pause, avoid, and ignore them... but never can you end them.” If you think about this in relation to what people actually think exists or is “real” it gets hairy.
Think about it. If you fear something or reject something isn’t that an acknowledgement that you believe it exists? I mean you can’t oppose something if it doesn’t exist right? I mean if you say that you are an atheist, fine. But if you resent people that do believe in God, isn’t that establishing a relationship to a concept that you don’t believe exists.
I think that in our society today that we don’t accurately distinguish between things that we oppose and things we think don’t exist. It seems a universal flaw in our collective way of thinking. I’m also thinking it’s the reason for the current field of psychology. I mean much of the work done in therapy or study of the mind is reconciling our conscience claiming something is non-existent and our sub-conscience working through it’s reaction to that very thing that supposedly doesn’t exist. Is this a flaw in the Western/Occidental world of logic and science, where all things need to be proven to admit their existence? Yet we all know that there are clearly elements in play both within our minds and in the world that are very much real but unknowable at some level. Just ask any physicist or astronomer.
The other issue is that we often have a fear of the unknowable. But if we fear something, doesn’t that mean that it does exist on some elemental level? I mean if something has the power to enact change in reality doesn’t it exist at some level? If we have a reaction to something doesn’t it mean that at least in that moment that something existed in a form powerful enough to incite a reaction in us? I’m mean it’s all about cause and effect. You do have to have something cause every effect, whether we know what that cause is or not.
Let’s think about religion for a moment. I sat in on a sermon one day where a pastor made the very point I’m making here. He argued that Jesus didn’t tell people to stay away from charmers and psychics and such because it doesn’t work. Afterall if it didn’t work there would be no reason to keep people away from it. Instead the very fact that Jesus told his followers to stay away from these alternative ways of understanding the universe validates that these things have some power over people that, in his mind, is in someway unproductive. So the idea that we as Christians are often told to stay away from exploring other forms of religion gives those very religions power. No matter what Christian followers might say there is certainly an element of fear behind avoiding other religions, whether it be the fear that comes with ignorance or the fear that comes with the hell fire and brimstone option the church so graciously provides.
On the other end of this spectrum are the religions or spiritual practices that are open to understanding, incorporating, and respecting the spiritual beliefs of others. Take for example the polytheistic religious systems of Africa and India. In these cultures, one might choose what deities one will honor, however, this does not negate the existence of other deities. And arguably, these spiritual systems seem to be able to remain constant (still flexible and mutable though) and practical no matter what influence other religions attempt to make on the greater culture. I mean sure you have people in these parts of the world who may convert to Christianity, Islam, or some other form of religion that demands total and complete loyalty only to it’s practices and laws. But even in conversion in these parts of the world, I find there is not the same rampant sort of stiff and unwaning rejection of the previous religious beliefs. In these cultural constructs the imposing new religion just gets sucked up into the structure of the existing religion, not thoroughly rejected through some sort of fear or threat.
Take for example Christianity and Hinduism. In India Jesus is considered an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Christianity is not rejected or thought of as non-existent. It is acknowledged and incorporated into the existing religious structure. Now this is certainly over-simplified for the purpose of making a point, but is still effective in the argument.
I guess the point I’m making is that maybe if we could manage to honor accept and respect the beliefs of others we may find a greater sense of peace within ourselves and as a society. The fear of “the other” and those things we don’t know will no longer plague us but will be another knowledge system to experience. It will be like the pleasure of getting to know someone you have been curious about. If we accept that things we don’t understand or know exist, we might also be able to better sort through many psychological roadblocks we have in our life where we struggle to deny the existence of something the sub-conscious is desperately trying to suppress because it knows that in fact that thing does exist at some level. Our paranoia of the unknown might just dissipate with the knowledge that accepting the validity and existence of unknown elements might alleviate the power and fear that avoiding those unknown things induces. Peaceful acceptance that there is never only one discernable truth but various ways of understanding, explaining, and articulating worldly and spiritual phenomena is what I’m hoping to illuminate. I guess at this point I’ll cynically say to myself, “Good luck with that.”
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