Elf was rummaging into the notion archive.
I approached him to see what was he doing and heard him chuckle.
-Laughing at me as usual? I asked in good mood.
He looked up and I saw that undoubtedly impish look in his eyes. This is a proof of his unspeakable thoughts and undoubtedly deviated behavior!
-Ah, here you are, he said grandly with a big grin and assessing me from mindhead to mindtoes.
-Of course here I am! I said somewhat peevishly, feeling my good mood ooze out while I looked at his ironic face and listened to his sarcastic commentary,where else? This is MY mind!
-Less than you think of, I assure you m’lad, less than you think of, he retorted with that infuriating pose of a Celtic gnome who knows it all he used to adopt when teasing me!
-Now what!, I felt to rise in my… well, in my mind the usual rage I feel when he start to make me look like a child, are you going to tell me MY mind isn’t mine?
-No, no, just let this subject drop waiting for a better moment, what I meant to say is that reading with time and serenity I can appraise the involuntary good sense you displayed talking about that “accidental electron”, do you remember? Yes, I remembered, and I remembered the disturbed speechless countenance of Elf when I finished my relation. That picture of his confused face was enough to make me recover my good mood.
-Yeah, I said with a big grin of my own, I remember! You were bewildered no end!
-Naturally I was bewildered! I never, not even for a second, thought you would deploy the old theory of the primeval soup! Never thought you could, not even remotely, know about its existence. I thought you would talk about some nonsense in an electrical gadget!
-Electrical gadget, my foot! I hurled at him a comma I found in the floor, lost undoubtedly from some of my thoughts mixed up by Elf!
-Whaddayou think, I cannot live other life than that between my electrical gadgets? That I cannot know about the Princeton Gnosis? that I never was exposed to all those theories about how, when, why and by whom, if anyone, was life developed in this planet?
-Now, steam off, will you? I am telling you I appreciate the involuntary good sense you displayed talking about the “accidental electron”! he interjected, I was a bit confused, I didn’t know if feel insulted or flattered.
-You see, continued my nemesis, you were trying to state one of those petty theories of agnostic and atheists and when I asked where was God in this brainy hypothesis, you answered, with the involuntary knowledge implanted in your core, something to the effect that He was intervening somewhat to make the theory work. This small comment of yours is enough to show what is a real truth: humankind will work thousands of theories trying to elude the concept of a superior being but will also let out from its deep foundation, without even knowing it, the crucial belief of the undeniable need of the existence of a creator.
I consider this unusual speech.
-I cannot deny your postulation, I finally said, also, I cannot vouch for it so clearly. But some entries ago I said something about this idea and the vacuum inside any and all human individuals.
-Exactly! Some of you (and they are not as many as so noisy that it seems as if everybody agrees with them, which is far from the truth since most human beings believe, and many of them even state that there must be a creator for all these marvels around us that we can see, hear or detect somehow and of those we can’t) some of you I said, want to spread the insane idea of an “accidental” or “chance creation”, similar to that of the monkey and its typewriter (or should I say Personal Computer), where with time and patient the little animal can produce a sonnet similar or identical to any of those written by Shakespeare!
I didn’t know what to say, so I just stare at him dumbfounded, it was so out of character all this tirade!
But he looked comfortable expounding all these abstract concepts that I just let him go on.
-The mathematical odds of this happening are staggering. Now, if we follow Sir Arthur Conan Doyle advice in the mouth of Sherlock Holmes: “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.”, then we can safely accept the old, old Aristotelian concept of an immobile motor which has and is bringing into being all other things in the Universe! And rest at easy, I can asseverate it is true!
-You can?… What do you mean, you can?… How can you?… What are you talking about?…
Elf fled from my questions and made him scarce between a good and a bad idea…
© 2007 Soother.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Faith, that jolting experience (II)
When you find a person who believes the deity is a constant and real presence, you find a rare phenomenon in the soul of this person (yes, supposing the soul exists; if you feel awkward with this notion you can call it whatever you want since there is no doubt that an intangible “something” lives inside our heart, skull, or mind that we call “I”).
The first surprising fact you find when you look close to the beliefs “owned” by this religious person is that those beliefs are a certainty, the person “knows” God exists, “knows” He is in charge and “knows” that despite the unsecured sight we have of the world at large, there is a Plan, a Design to be followed up to a Happy End, childish as this seems.
This surprising fact is the basal stone which has maintained religious Faith alive through so many years since the first of us opened the eyes to the wonderful sense of being aware of the difference between the rest of the world and that sentience called “I”! This “knowing” fills up the vacuum in our soul so aplenty that life takes a new and wonderful meaning.
The mystics, who have experienced the sense of the divine, are so strongly attached to the anchor of belief that it is a certainty. And, wonder of wonder, those whose experience were not mystic develop a strange certainty almost as strong as that of the mystics.
What makes all this possible? How can a person “create” something so incredibly wonderful? Theologians’ explanation is that no person create it since it is too big a notion as to be thought by a human being, so what?, well, as incredible as it may seem, the explanation states that it was revealed by the owner of every space in the Universe, included souls, God Himself. Agnostics sustain it is a psychological reaction. Choose the one you like more.
The simple fact that every one of the creatures are so tightly bonded to the Creator can develop a strong and secure sense as to close the gates to insecurity and vulnerability.
Be this true or not, this Faith moves mountains and makes people better in their own ways since it removes the need to be defensive and guarded against the imponderable.
Compared to desacralized Faith this is Ambrosia, this is the Golden Fleece, this is the Shangri-la every one of us dreams about!
Unfortunately, these different “Faiths” have, as anything else in the universe, a dark side we know too well. Three mistakes named:
Fanaticism, fundamentalism, bigotry.
Deeply seated in those insecure feelings we develop in life facing uncertainties is the need to keep secure our beliefs; those beliefs that give us a harbour for our fears, when our Faith is not based on something as strong as a God, or if you prefer as good as a psychological reaction, we feel threatened and anything that menace those beliefs are a menace to us, personally.
We “must” fight all and everything departing our paths. This fight is a distortion of real Faith. This gives birth to those three mistakes mentioned above and through them a myriad of errors, cruel actions, and dreadful attitudes.
Starting from this narrow lane of thought humankind had divided into factions, each faction had created new concepts to keep its needs addressed and, of course, as those concepts are not the same since the veneer of knowledge, intelligence, and culture are different, even those factions near enough to share some beliefs are far enough to dissent on basic things and way of thoughts.
This is true in both situations. Scientific and religious beliefs have its divisions, and each one of them its followers, developing, by the way, many different manners of defining the same thing and a rejection, sometimes brutal rejection, of any definition not agreeable to theirs.
This is the well known, not written, principle that states we must destroy everything we do not understand or see different to us and our ways.
Difference is not wrong, WE are different in the manner of puzzle pieces, if we just take the place we are designed to, the image appears clear and beautiful. But that is not the case, we think the image MUST be as we imagine it is, following our principles and beliefs (aka, tainted Faith, since it is tainted by our own ideas or those inherited), so if we find a different piece in our puzzle, we try to cut and warp it to conform our idea of the whole, destroying that “different” piece in the process and thinking we did it a good turn.
We prefer to kill, since it guaranty there would be no remonstrance from that quarter, instead of trying to understand each other and be very much alive, as it was meant since we are born.
There is a long way to walk yet for humankind to accept differences, and with it faith as a reality as concrete as to produce actual facts, my guess is we will reach that stage but it would take many, many individual casualties to make humankind shine in its own glow.
© 2007 Soother.
The first surprising fact you find when you look close to the beliefs “owned” by this religious person is that those beliefs are a certainty, the person “knows” God exists, “knows” He is in charge and “knows” that despite the unsecured sight we have of the world at large, there is a Plan, a Design to be followed up to a Happy End, childish as this seems.
This surprising fact is the basal stone which has maintained religious Faith alive through so many years since the first of us opened the eyes to the wonderful sense of being aware of the difference between the rest of the world and that sentience called “I”! This “knowing” fills up the vacuum in our soul so aplenty that life takes a new and wonderful meaning.
The mystics, who have experienced the sense of the divine, are so strongly attached to the anchor of belief that it is a certainty. And, wonder of wonder, those whose experience were not mystic develop a strange certainty almost as strong as that of the mystics.
What makes all this possible? How can a person “create” something so incredibly wonderful? Theologians’ explanation is that no person create it since it is too big a notion as to be thought by a human being, so what?, well, as incredible as it may seem, the explanation states that it was revealed by the owner of every space in the Universe, included souls, God Himself. Agnostics sustain it is a psychological reaction. Choose the one you like more.
The simple fact that every one of the creatures are so tightly bonded to the Creator can develop a strong and secure sense as to close the gates to insecurity and vulnerability.
Be this true or not, this Faith moves mountains and makes people better in their own ways since it removes the need to be defensive and guarded against the imponderable.
Compared to desacralized Faith this is Ambrosia, this is the Golden Fleece, this is the Shangri-la every one of us dreams about!
Unfortunately, these different “Faiths” have, as anything else in the universe, a dark side we know too well. Three mistakes named:
Fanaticism, fundamentalism, bigotry.
Deeply seated in those insecure feelings we develop in life facing uncertainties is the need to keep secure our beliefs; those beliefs that give us a harbour for our fears, when our Faith is not based on something as strong as a God, or if you prefer as good as a psychological reaction, we feel threatened and anything that menace those beliefs are a menace to us, personally.
We “must” fight all and everything departing our paths. This fight is a distortion of real Faith. This gives birth to those three mistakes mentioned above and through them a myriad of errors, cruel actions, and dreadful attitudes.
Starting from this narrow lane of thought humankind had divided into factions, each faction had created new concepts to keep its needs addressed and, of course, as those concepts are not the same since the veneer of knowledge, intelligence, and culture are different, even those factions near enough to share some beliefs are far enough to dissent on basic things and way of thoughts.
This is true in both situations. Scientific and religious beliefs have its divisions, and each one of them its followers, developing, by the way, many different manners of defining the same thing and a rejection, sometimes brutal rejection, of any definition not agreeable to theirs.
This is the well known, not written, principle that states we must destroy everything we do not understand or see different to us and our ways.
Difference is not wrong, WE are different in the manner of puzzle pieces, if we just take the place we are designed to, the image appears clear and beautiful. But that is not the case, we think the image MUST be as we imagine it is, following our principles and beliefs (aka, tainted Faith, since it is tainted by our own ideas or those inherited), so if we find a different piece in our puzzle, we try to cut and warp it to conform our idea of the whole, destroying that “different” piece in the process and thinking we did it a good turn.
We prefer to kill, since it guaranty there would be no remonstrance from that quarter, instead of trying to understand each other and be very much alive, as it was meant since we are born.
There is a long way to walk yet for humankind to accept differences, and with it faith as a reality as concrete as to produce actual facts, my guess is we will reach that stage but it would take many, many individual casualties to make humankind shine in its own glow.
© 2007 Soother.
Faith, that jolting experience. (I)
We live in an agnostic world in the best case, or in a nihilistic one in the worst.
This seems the current definition of our western society nowadays, but it is far from the truth.
We cannot deny there is a strong tendency to create a concrete world, based on science (whatever this means) and where everybody who do not toe the line to these beliefs is considered crazy, simpleton or moron and must be left behind with no one glance back, a kind of ostracism if you do not “equal” the herd model. This is effective with teenagers and some adults in need of a self-esteem booster.
This culture tries its best to keep humankind with the feet on solid earth, I am sure its followers are absolutely convinced they are right and performing a good deed. The question here is about what difference they make on reality.
When you make an exhaustive analysis of this phenomenon you find in a surprising way that, despite the efforts realized to keep everything accounted for, we are dealing with a huge slice of that thing most dreaded by unbelievers: Faith.
From long ago in the western religious fields Faith is one of the three theological virtues: Faith - Hope - Charity. The order was not aleatory. Faith opens the way to mystic environment where, based in Hope, will find the final Charity (Absolute Love). This seems to be an unacceptable way to achieve things and knowledge in this world without faith, but…
What is the path to achieve knowledge in the actual world?
Premise - Test - Evidence.
These are the three virtues of science; as a complement of this path, anyone can walk it and repeat exactly the same situations and conclusions.
Now, few of us can follow this path since we have not the training to do so. So what are we really doing? We believe the scientists are saying the truth, we have, hrrmm… sorry, faith in their work.
Here you go! The world is based on faith, or it will not work, it is impossible for us, all of us, to test and prove everything and anything.
If we do not develop an open mind we restrain ourselves to narrow paths and clearly set close boundaries to our learning.
Something cannot be proved by a set of concrete rules? Well, maybe it does not exist or maybe it does but cannot be proven by a set of concrete rules! This open-minded feeling should be the gist of agnosticism, not the “not believe until proven” which is the demanding action of these days.
We must remember that if this “open-minded” business is good in itself, it is subjective.
You have never seen a ghost… they do not exist for you. Right! I agree.
You live in a haunted house… and ghosts go bumping in the night, they are very real to you. Right! I agree.
Listening to many agnostics, one would imagine that this appeal to authority as a criterion is unscientific, though perhaps nowhere is authority appealed to so unscientifically as by modern scientists and modern critics.
Now, can you tell me why should I accept “scientific” faith and not “religious” faith?
I can hear your answer: “Because whatever a scientist said can be proved… (I add) by another scientist!”. What about me; I am no scientist, so I must believe whatever scientists say.
Cool! I agree.
Now again, whatever any mystic says can be proved… by another mystic! What about me; I am not mystic, so I must believe whatever mystics say!
Cool! I agree.
Despite my thought may seem “unscientific” I think we are attaching too much belief to science and too little to religion. And it is not just coincidence but causality. Since the famous (often misquoted) statement from Marx about the “opium of the people”, we are riding a crusade backward, doing the same thing crusaders did against those infidels but now against those faithful.
And we must not forget that for each agnostic abusing a faithful there is a faithful abusing an agnostic, fundamentalism does not help in any field!
From a psychiatric point of view, human beings are very much as a vacuum box, this vacuum is the outcome of the poor control we have over ourselves and our environment.
Notwithstanding all the efforts we have exerted since we become aware of being alive we cannot predict a small event in the next seconds of our time with absolute certitude. Oh yes, we can, with a grade of exactitude written in the unreliable laws of statistics, say what is going to happen but there always is a number, sometime a large one, of variables that must be left out of our equation since we cannot, even with a computer, manage them all.
And yes, maybe in the future we will be able to do so, but not now, which is the time I am interested in since I am not sure (there we go about predictions) if I will be alive the next five seconds.
We can see we cannot master our person or our environment so we feel: insecure.
We know we are in the maelstrom of events that can change our life in seconds; this is the essence of our feeling insecure, unsafe, and vulnerable. This condition is what creates the vacuum in our core; this vacuum is a strong need to find a safe harbour, a place where everything is accounted for and make us feel sure of ourselves and our environment.
This vacuum attracts anything that can promise, not even give the certainty, but only the promise of that certitude, of that safe feeling of being secure. Hence the need to believe in something, anything, so we start to take Nature (capital N), Science, People, Anything, Nothing as the fulcrum of our beliefs, and use the lever to assert our insecurities.
In recapitulation, we have two paths in our secular Faith: we believe what we want to believe or we believe nothing at all!
So much for desacralized Faith!
Now, just for the sake of balance let’s review the opposite, sacralized Faith, this somewhat discredited path, but let make separate room for it.
(to be continued)
© 2007 Soother.
This seems the current definition of our western society nowadays, but it is far from the truth.
We cannot deny there is a strong tendency to create a concrete world, based on science (whatever this means) and where everybody who do not toe the line to these beliefs is considered crazy, simpleton or moron and must be left behind with no one glance back, a kind of ostracism if you do not “equal” the herd model. This is effective with teenagers and some adults in need of a self-esteem booster.
This culture tries its best to keep humankind with the feet on solid earth, I am sure its followers are absolutely convinced they are right and performing a good deed. The question here is about what difference they make on reality.
When you make an exhaustive analysis of this phenomenon you find in a surprising way that, despite the efforts realized to keep everything accounted for, we are dealing with a huge slice of that thing most dreaded by unbelievers: Faith.
From long ago in the western religious fields Faith is one of the three theological virtues: Faith - Hope - Charity. The order was not aleatory. Faith opens the way to mystic environment where, based in Hope, will find the final Charity (Absolute Love). This seems to be an unacceptable way to achieve things and knowledge in this world without faith, but…
What is the path to achieve knowledge in the actual world?
Premise - Test - Evidence.
These are the three virtues of science; as a complement of this path, anyone can walk it and repeat exactly the same situations and conclusions.
Now, few of us can follow this path since we have not the training to do so. So what are we really doing? We believe the scientists are saying the truth, we have, hrrmm… sorry, faith in their work.
Here you go! The world is based on faith, or it will not work, it is impossible for us, all of us, to test and prove everything and anything.
If we do not develop an open mind we restrain ourselves to narrow paths and clearly set close boundaries to our learning.
Something cannot be proved by a set of concrete rules? Well, maybe it does not exist or maybe it does but cannot be proven by a set of concrete rules! This open-minded feeling should be the gist of agnosticism, not the “not believe until proven” which is the demanding action of these days.
We must remember that if this “open-minded” business is good in itself, it is subjective.
You have never seen a ghost… they do not exist for you. Right! I agree.
You live in a haunted house… and ghosts go bumping in the night, they are very real to you. Right! I agree.
Listening to many agnostics, one would imagine that this appeal to authority as a criterion is unscientific, though perhaps nowhere is authority appealed to so unscientifically as by modern scientists and modern critics.
Now, can you tell me why should I accept “scientific” faith and not “religious” faith?
I can hear your answer: “Because whatever a scientist said can be proved… (I add) by another scientist!”. What about me; I am no scientist, so I must believe whatever scientists say.
Cool! I agree.
Now again, whatever any mystic says can be proved… by another mystic! What about me; I am not mystic, so I must believe whatever mystics say!
Cool! I agree.
Despite my thought may seem “unscientific” I think we are attaching too much belief to science and too little to religion. And it is not just coincidence but causality. Since the famous (often misquoted) statement from Marx about the “opium of the people”, we are riding a crusade backward, doing the same thing crusaders did against those infidels but now against those faithful.
And we must not forget that for each agnostic abusing a faithful there is a faithful abusing an agnostic, fundamentalism does not help in any field!
From a psychiatric point of view, human beings are very much as a vacuum box, this vacuum is the outcome of the poor control we have over ourselves and our environment.
Notwithstanding all the efforts we have exerted since we become aware of being alive we cannot predict a small event in the next seconds of our time with absolute certitude. Oh yes, we can, with a grade of exactitude written in the unreliable laws of statistics, say what is going to happen but there always is a number, sometime a large one, of variables that must be left out of our equation since we cannot, even with a computer, manage them all.
And yes, maybe in the future we will be able to do so, but not now, which is the time I am interested in since I am not sure (there we go about predictions) if I will be alive the next five seconds.
We can see we cannot master our person or our environment so we feel: insecure.
We know we are in the maelstrom of events that can change our life in seconds; this is the essence of our feeling insecure, unsafe, and vulnerable. This condition is what creates the vacuum in our core; this vacuum is a strong need to find a safe harbour, a place where everything is accounted for and make us feel sure of ourselves and our environment.
This vacuum attracts anything that can promise, not even give the certainty, but only the promise of that certitude, of that safe feeling of being secure. Hence the need to believe in something, anything, so we start to take Nature (capital N), Science, People, Anything, Nothing as the fulcrum of our beliefs, and use the lever to assert our insecurities.
In recapitulation, we have two paths in our secular Faith: we believe what we want to believe or we believe nothing at all!
So much for desacralized Faith!
Now, just for the sake of balance let’s review the opposite, sacralized Faith, this somewhat discredited path, but let make separate room for it.
(to be continued)
© 2007 Soother.
I love Opera «Second note»
Music can help you to perform the difficult movement of walking in a new environment, no rat race, no need to be first. Unfortunately, not all music is suitable, the raucous kindled voices, the high pitched noises, the repeated beat with no purpose only adds to the irrational race I was talking above. I am not disqualifying this music, you are entitled to like it, I only say that from my standpoint only serve to the purpose of herding and helping to push forward the need to run fast toward nowhere, again this is from my perspective, I can accept that we humans are different enough as not to think alike.
Besides, to an untrained ear, I mean an ear not used to listen Opera, not an “educated” ear, the human voice, the best musical instrument in the Universe, can be ugly. There are various pitches we must train our ear to differentiate before we can enjoy the thrill of music blended into voices.
Once you are lucky enough to have conquered with effort those first steps, you must try to learn what is happening on the stage, maybe most of it is a melodrama but so is life, too.
Why learn this?, simple put: because that is the only way to understand OPERA and the pathos in the characters.
Even if these steps seems difficult, the reward is the best thing that can happen to a person. As it is in real life, whatever you get without effort gives no reward or worse, we seem to acknowledge that the easy acquiring takes away value to the prize.
From passion strong feelings pour, which are diffusely cradled in the powerful arms of music and voice, if you can share the “pain” in Lucia when she has lost her reason broken by the sheer power of sorrow and despair, the words “Il dolce suono” (The sweet dream”) take a new and deep meaning that justify her actions before the “Scena de la follia” (Mad scene), the loving cadence of her voice accompanying the deluded thoughts of true love are movingly human in the inhuman madness that invaded her.
This cannot be explained; as sex and mysticism you must live them to understand their meaning, and to live sex, mysticism and feelings as those of Lucia you must make an effort which can leave you exhausted, even if totally satisfied. Your sentience as much as your body are depleted and at the same time replete with everything a human being can desire.
Maybe you can tell me you feel like that after sex, mystic experience or any music concert but I can assure you we may be using the same words but not the same meaning or feelings!
© 2007 Soother.
Besides, to an untrained ear, I mean an ear not used to listen Opera, not an “educated” ear, the human voice, the best musical instrument in the Universe, can be ugly. There are various pitches we must train our ear to differentiate before we can enjoy the thrill of music blended into voices.
Once you are lucky enough to have conquered with effort those first steps, you must try to learn what is happening on the stage, maybe most of it is a melodrama but so is life, too.
Why learn this?, simple put: because that is the only way to understand OPERA and the pathos in the characters.
Even if these steps seems difficult, the reward is the best thing that can happen to a person. As it is in real life, whatever you get without effort gives no reward or worse, we seem to acknowledge that the easy acquiring takes away value to the prize.
From passion strong feelings pour, which are diffusely cradled in the powerful arms of music and voice, if you can share the “pain” in Lucia when she has lost her reason broken by the sheer power of sorrow and despair, the words “Il dolce suono” (The sweet dream”) take a new and deep meaning that justify her actions before the “Scena de la follia” (Mad scene), the loving cadence of her voice accompanying the deluded thoughts of true love are movingly human in the inhuman madness that invaded her.
This cannot be explained; as sex and mysticism you must live them to understand their meaning, and to live sex, mysticism and feelings as those of Lucia you must make an effort which can leave you exhausted, even if totally satisfied. Your sentience as much as your body are depleted and at the same time replete with everything a human being can desire.
Maybe you can tell me you feel like that after sex, mystic experience or any music concert but I can assure you we may be using the same words but not the same meaning or feelings!
© 2007 Soother.
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