Saturday, June 14, 2008

A Philosophical Talk in the Dentist's Chair

As an author and a former newsman I'm have become quite adept at picking up ideas for writing from all over the place. Ideas that will spurn more creativity can be found anywhere including the dentist's chair. My dental hygenist (Jessica) and I got into the most fascinating conversation about faith and spirituality this morning. I told her I was undecided on the God question after she mentioned how important church and family was to her. I related to her that I was uncertain but was jealous of people who had faith and were certain they were going to heaven. My wife Debbie says she is certain she is going to heaven and Jessica agreed that she is certain too. She says it is such a relief and a feeling of peace to have that certainty that there is something beyond eartly things. I told her that I struggle with my faith. She also told me how she sees the hope and love of God through her family, her four beautiful children as she calls them, and her adoring husband.

Meeting people like Jessica makes me hestitate at criticizing the logic of religion too harshly, yet I know deep inside that faulty logic must be challenged. She told me about her children having the correct spiritual foundation to be able to negotiate life's unexpected twists and turns. I countered by saying that critical thinking and free thinking is important, that children must be taught to be responsible in a variety of situations so they can make the right choices when parents are not around. She talked about her nine year-old daughter and I talked about my oldest son(who is 13). We both agreed that they should be able to make the right choices when parents are not around and that a solid foundation should be laid for their growth. We differ on how this is done. To her it is the Catholic Church and to me, it's pure critical thinking, compassion, reason and responsibility. In an uncanny way Jessica concluded our philosophical talk by saying that there are many paths to righteousness. I couldn't have said it better myself.


One final thought:
On the radio I heard about Tony Blair's new foundation. The foundation is reaching with great effort to bring people of faith together to talk about real issues that affect real people. I think this is a step in the right direction. (Blair is the former Prime Minister of Great Britain.)

The goals of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation are:
to promote respect and understanding between the major religions;
to make the case for faith as a force for good; and
to encourage inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and conflict.

Announcing the launch of the Faith Foundation Tony Blair said: "Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century. In an era of globalisation, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect; and to give faith itself its proper place in the future."
Tony Blair has argued that faith has to be rescued from those who would use it to divide and those determined to write it off as an irrelevance. By stressing the values of respect, justice and compassion which the great religions hold in common, he believes faith can help unite the World and shape its direction for the better.
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is a response to these opportunities and challenges. It will use the power of modern communications to step up efforts to educate, inform and develop understanding about the different faiths and between them. At the same time, the Foundation will use its profile and resources to help mobilise people of faith to work together in concrete action to build a fairer and better world.
In the first three years of the Foundation, priority will be given to encouraging inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and to improve understanding of the great religions through education at every level.

8 comments:

will said...

Not too long ago I caught a headline which seem to say it's possible there’s a genetic reason for having faith or the lack of faith. That works for me because I've often thought the matter of faith is extraordinarily easy to determine: It's all about wanting to believe in an unknown or not. Either you do or you don't.

I went through Catholic grade school and high school, I did the rituals, memorized and kneeled - but I was Teflon, don't stuck. Ultimately what they said and taught made no sense, it impacted me in no endearing cosmic way and once out of school I walked away from the entire religious thing with not a blip of regret.

In college I took many philosophy courses, psych and anthro classes. I majored in science and ended up as a craftsman-artist. At no time during any of those years, including this very moment, do I have any pangs of regret.

Religion is a man-made concept and it is an egocentric, anthropomorphic concept.
Beside, our sensory organs and our man-made extensions (telescopes, etc.) are imprecise and our mental skills are subject to many and varied stimuli from chemical imbalance to good-bad parenting. With what we can use for determining the unknown, I wouldn’t wager much money. In the case of religion, what is unknown is interpreted (by men), codified and preached to the faithful that they must believe in the religion's wise guys interpretations of the unknown. No proof required.

Discussing spirituality is another issue. It is slightly metaphysical but the nature of spirituality doesn't mean dragging a god concept into the discussion. It can simply mean that every person, every living thing is in some manner, unique. As is said about fingerprints, no two are the same.

Religion was OK when, in man’s earliest days, it was used to soothe the beast in men, to stabilize behavioral aberrations and to codify cultural protocols. It was when there was one wise guy and a bunch of ignorant fools. Times change, we pushed our mental capacities, we’ve developed rational thought, we’ve tamed our savage intellect (mostly) - yet religion remains. Why? Because it still has and it plays the wild card of explaining the unknown - mainly, what happens after death. And fear of the unknown then rears its head and there is acquiescence.

Questions About Faith, Etc. said...

Yes, Bill. Very interesting.

Religion in many ways is a dinosaur. The key is to develop organized forms of spirituality with less rules attached. But, as Richard Dawkins says in "The Four Horsemen," religion has in some sense "hijacked" communication about the deepest questions of mankind. Churches have a hand in birth, marriage and death....pretty important things for something based on tradition not truth. More later. Thanks for your interest in my blog Bill.
I will continue to read your blog.

p.s. See my first entry on my blog, entitled "Letter to Christian Friends."

Karen said...

At the risk of getting in way over my head here, I've enjoyed reading a few of your blogs. For me, faith cannot be reasoned. When approaching it from the position of reason, I doubt. Faith is a very personal journey. God is a very personal God. I found myself totally broken at a point in my life, nothing left. With barely an ounce of faith, I looked to God, and He was there. He was as close to me as any human being could be. I know now that all that I am and have is because of Christ. It's not because I read books about God, or sang songs about God, but because I know Him.
Thanks for all you write. I will be back to read more!

Questions About Faith, Etc. said...

Thanks Karen for your sensitive and heart felt words. My object here is not to deflate the egos of all who follow Christianity or some other faith with parallel belief systems. If you think you have a supernatural being who knows your thoughts looking after your well being, then there is nothing I can do to change your mind. I know that I cannot reason you out of something you haven't been reasoned into in the first place.

I am simply trying to be honest with myself. Right now I have weekly intense sessions with my Stephen Minister at church trying to lay out all my thoughts and feelings concerning faith. It's because of Tim(my lay minister) that I created this blog. I think it is so important(much as Tim Russert did) to appeal to the best in people and to continue a dialogue between people of faith and people not of faith.

I am deeply honored that you want to read more. I think the kind of dialogue we could start together could be symbolic of millions across the globe talking opening about their faith and their reason.

I biggest difference I see between us may be that you say you cannot believe in God when you approach it from the perspective of reason. You need to see it through the lens of faith. What I'm attempting is the highly ambitious effort of seeing the meaning of life through both lenses simultaneously, that of faith and that of reason. Tough assigment, we'll see how I do.

Sincerely

CJH

will said...

It matters not to me what others believe ... as long as another person’s opinion doesn't morph into rules and regs that impinge or limit my personal views.

Reading you last posted comment I was stuck by the incongruity of having intense weekly sessions with a minister and not having similar conversations with a non-religious person - perhaps a existentialist or at least a person with yawning indifference.

Seems to me, talking with a minister is akin to talking to a donut baker about the value of pastries. It’s foregone what he will say. Ministers can never grasp the concept of non-religion or god as a myth - they may try but it’s a doomed point-counter point discussion.

Faith vs. non faith. For me it is a non-issue. Religion is mostly a cultural-social mechanism - and if I have an alternate POV, well, it’s mine and I don’t care if it fits the norm and I have no interest in defending or debating it.

Dialog? For what purpose? Justification or camaraderie - to fit in, to be part of a holistic and nurturing environment? I don’t care and I’m not interested in acceptance - what I believe is what I believe and a minister who spent years reading the bible and attending a christian training school can never offer reasonable challenges or debate.

Questions About Faith, Etc. said...

Bill,

Thanks for the comments.

I believe in trying to continue dialogue even when there is a very little chance of complete success.

Religion is so ingrained in the human species, you cannot just remove it like you would remove an appendix. I believe faith vs. non faith is one of the most interesting issues in the world. Maybe we need to agree to disagree.

What do you think of Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and the like?
You would probably find them interesting.

Laura Stokes-Gray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura Stokes-Gray said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. We seem to have some things in common. I heard Carl Rogers speak in San
Francisco back in the day. Here in Chicago we have the Zygon Center for Religion and Science housed at the Lutheran School of Theology at the University of Chicago. I've taken a few post-grad seminars there and have been fortunate to hear lectures by Don York, Chair of the Department of Astronomy at the U. of C. and Rocky Kolb of Fermilab. Hope Obama gets elected. I sure miss Sagan. Look up Richard Feynman - you'll love him.

Laura

swedishbaker.blogspot.com