Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, open-ness -- an act of trust in the unknown.Why do we each believe this and not that? Why does one set of beliefs resonate to the depths of our souls, while several others seem like nothing more than insane poppycock?
~ Alan Watts in The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are ~
Of course, the true believer will tell you that they believe what they believe because it's true! The only problem with this line of defense is that it's NOT true. Truth is -- when we each get down to the bottom line -- science, religion, philosophy and almost anything else in existence is based on a type of faith.
For example, if I say the sun will rise tomorrow morning, I genuinely don't know that it will. I have a great deal of faith in that statement borne of past experience, but, just because the sun has risen everyday of my life, doesn't guarantee that it will indeed rise ever again. Science tells me the mathematical chances of the sun not rising tomorrow are exponentially minute, but nothing can be predicted 100% of the time.
How many times in our lives have we tried to instruct someone else on how to do something and said, "Works for me every single time"? And then it doesn't work! We go through all the steps that we've employed countless times before and it still refuses to produce the result we KNOW it should. All we are left with is "That's the darnedest thing."
So, I return to my previous question: Why do we each believe this and not that?
I believe in this AND that.
ReplyDelete(My word verification is "goose". As in duck, duck...?)
But what about these and those?
ReplyDeleteA closed mind gathers no wisdom.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we believe this and not that?
ReplyDeletePerhaps because we are all desperately seeking "truth", yet we have no idea what "truth" is, or more importantly if we can handle the "truth" and in seeking "truth" we look for validation because we believe its the indicator of "truth". Ironically, when "truth" surfaces and we find out the “truth” was a figment of our imagination, or a hoax, the ego feels threatened and as a result, one tends to point fingers and blame at others for being misguided by “truth”. The same “truth” that one searches for, one denies because often times the “truth” hurts. People are frightened by uncertainty, it elicits a sense of fear and ultimately the ego has to defend itself.