A long-held pet peeve of mine has been rearing its prickled head a bit more than usual lately. I’ve gotten into a few religious debates with people, both online and in person, about the problems with making concrete interpretations.
To assert that something is true and factual, and that others must also believe it, despite that it cannot be proven, for instance, to a court of law, or by repeatable scientific processes, is both irresponsible and dangerous. Great harm has occurred through the misuse of scripture in this way.
Now, this is not to say that some things people hold to be factual yet remain unprovable aren’t true. There are many likely true but unprovable facts out there. How does one prove love, for instance?
One could say we prove our love through our actions. But is that definitive proof that love exists? How does one point to love? Or measure it? We could point to actions which we deem loving and declare that to be proof of love itself. But is it?
To say “I love you“ is not proving the existence of love either. In fact, it doesn’t even prove the existence of my own love. My declaring it to be so does not prove it’s true. It is just my testimony.
Yet practically all of us factually believe in the existence of love. And that’s a good thing, of course. The problem arises, however, when we declare something which we personally believe to be true as an indisputable fact; sometimes to the point that one should even be willing to risk their life to defend it.
Does that sound reasonable?
Now we jump to the question on the existence of God. I personally believe in what people call God. I believe in a higher power, larger than myself, who/which is the central unifying force in the universe. I also believe that love is not only at the core of It, but is all of It.
And what if I told you that you had to believe in my version of God because I said it was factual and because I could find various scripture which supports my claim? Potentially, I could locate dozens or maybe even hundreds or more people in the world who would join me in declaring it to be a fact. I could start a church based on that idea, couldn’t I?
But have I presented any facts? Would my claim be valid simply because I hold it to be true?
This is where the lesson of humility comes in. If we can first acknowledge that there’s no way we as humans could know everything there is to know in the physical universe, or beyond, we might conclude that we rarely have any basis for making a definitive statement about virtually anything. Certainly not about God.
Some people have a hard time with that. Some people require fundamentally concrete ideas which they can personally hold to be true. And because of a lack of humility, they then need that truth to be co-validated by other people. Sometimes at great cost.
But a more humble approach to faith would recognize that others don’t need to believe what you believe, in exactly the way you believe it, in order for it to be okay. Because the truth is, it is never true that any two people believe exactly the same thing. We often come close to others; close enough that we may find ourselves to be part of the same general community. But like a fingerprint, my belief will never be exactly the same as another’s.
That’s probably the only provable thing about faith. I’m certain that there’s a way of scientifically demonstrating that no two people think exactly alike about the Ultimate Reality. I can’t conceive of the scope, creativity, expense, and oversight that would be required to undertake such a scientific survey, however.
So when we are looking at scriptural passages, for instance we would do well to remember that a thousand years from now people might look upon our printed words of today without realizing that the words sick, wicked, dope, lit, and chronic can all be used as the highest of compliments in today’s vernacular.
Whether you personally would use them in that way, is beside the point. They exist in print, and therefore could be interpreted many years from now, out of their historical context, out of the realm of understanding of what is meant by them in their use, but interpret them literally, nonetheless.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making definitive statements. We should add a bit of humility to our language. We should add the words “I believe“ or “it is my hope that” to our ideas when speaking about them to others.
When you think about it, to declare anything religious or spiritual to be an undeniable fact is a form of idolatry. And you are the God you’re falsely worshiping.
No comments:
Post a Comment