This culture is hung up on the way the word “belief” gets understood. I’m stymied by it as often as anybody.
It rankles to hear someone say there is a right way to believe. My term in an old journal was “right-angled faith.” I wanted to write a book about how this is wrong. A right way, of course, implies a wrong way, and when I get into a mindset that says I’m right in my way, in my methods, I’m saying I have it all figured out, while others, specifically you who think differently from me, are going nowhere.
In my understanding as a child of my culture, right equals worthy. It means perfection, flawlessness. And therefore to consider oneself right is a false idea, because no one can be found who is flawless. Most people don’t try to come off that way anymore. Instead, we make a point of saying everybody lies; everyone screws up. So to say there is a right way to believe is actually to believe something that is false. It’s to be deceived, by self or another person or group.
I like that people want honesty about all of us in our world today. I’m grateful for this genuine idea that we’re on level ground. This truth has come at great cost – there were Hitler and Pol Pot and Nixon and many more destroyers of illusion.
Unflinchingly now we believe there is no moral perfection among us. And so it seems to follow that there is no right or wrong way to believe. All I want to mention here is, sure, some details regarding believing – like whether or not I kneel or pray or study a religious book or fast or go someplace regularly to offer honor and service – don’t matter in the overall picture of what’s true.
My question is, does the object of my belief matter? Does anyone think so anymore? Or does everyone who’s sane urge everyone else, the way the preacher, Book, urged Captain Mal in the movie Serenity, to just believe? Don’t worry about what you’re believing, he said with his dying breath, just believe.
The same thought was put forth by the animated film, Kung Fu Panda. It seems a lot of screenwriters agree that believing by any means in anything is the real deal. Just flex those faith muscles; it’ll all work out.
But I can’t go that far. I think the object of my believing makes a difference, because Hitler believed in ideas that weren’t true. If he had saluted his straight-marching troops and shouted Heil! and all that as a way to gather everyone to go out and save harbor seals, no one would have gone to war with him (or at least it makes sense they shouldn’t have).
I plan to say more about this object stuff. Feel free to let me know if it makes you object.
I think Book told Mal to have faith in anything because he knew Mal, and that his faith was a helpful one, but Mal kept denying he had it–it’s not a one-size-fits-all guideline;
but yeah, when film directors stick such statements in their movies they seem that way: Just believe!
Not wise advice. Believe what?
I am a big believer in discernment–learning and practicing to *discern* what to believe and how to practice activating and supporting that belief.
This is a practice that needs exercise and effort as much as athletics does, though I don’t see that being promoted much in our culture.
The Olympics of Thoughtfulness! There’s an idea!
I’m not sure it’s a question of what’s “true” and what’s not:
Hitler believed that people will follow a strongman into hating a select group, if he makes them feel safe and righteous… and that’s true enough.
Good questions, Deanna!
love your thinking out loud here.
I like to think that I am tolerant of how or what or why people are different from me. Yet I chose my own way based on a belief that I am more right I guess.
And yes, do we just believe in whatever makes us feel good? Or happy. ?
and I love the quotes on your home page, you changed them ,or I finally read them.
Awesome, Fresca. What I was thinking about Book and Mal is very similar, I think, to what you said, and we’ll see how it comes out when I add more to this in a couple days. I love Book; he’s the Firefly character I ended up as when I took the online quiz. “You’re deeply spiritual with a mysterious past,” it said, or something like that. :o)
The Olympics of Thoughtfulness is a great concept! Maybe not so flashy for TV, but I would watch.
And I need to maybe discern between “truths” we believe in the mixture of responses we have to life from instinct and experience and so on and the “truth” that becomes foundational inside a person. I think Hitler came to believe things about morality that were false, such as some people being inferior to others, and this was foundational. Then he struck a path that worked, using his opinions and skills in manipulation and power plays. I will think on it more.
Yes, Deb, there’s a lot to the ideas of tolerance and being more right. This is helpful to my thinking about thinking this through from (in my case, definitely) a flawed worldview.
Glad you like the quotes – I’m always meaning to put up more, sooner.
Hey, Deanna:
This morality and discernment stuff can get tangled very quickly–Or I get easily tripped up in it, anyway!
I know the morality of dictators isn’t your main point, but it intrigues me:
having looked at a bunch of these dictators, they all start to seem the same, and I start to wonder if they really have any foundational morality…
I mean, they tend to be a-moral, and what seems to be foundational for them is simply getting and holding on to power, and any moral vision that helps them do that is OK with them…
Very curious examples of humanity.
Anyway, they always seem to end up using people as means to their ends, and that is certainly a Top Bad Thing in my book!
Good observation, Fresca. Now I want to look up a-moral. It could sure be the descriptive term for these megalomaniacs. Can someone be (or come to be) without morals? It sounds plausible. Then again, the idea could be used by some to justify not having to consider where they’re coming from or to wish them mercy. I don’t know… Thanks again for your thoughts.