Friday, August 22, 2014

The Difference between Faith and Certainty

As an agnostic and a skeptic, I used to find the idea of faith perplexing.  How can people be so certain of something for which there is no proof, or even overwhelming evidence? 

To me, the whole business of faith seemed naive.  I was raised Christian, but I had never seen any evidence to support the existence of the Trinity.  I thought, what is the difference between an adult believing in Jesus and a child believing in Santa Claus?  As far as I could tell, the child actually had more evidence.  At least there were presents beneath the tree on Christmas morning. 

Some people believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven.  Others believe that the only way is through Islam and the teaching s of Muhammad.  These two beliefs are mutually exclusive.  Even if one of them is right, that means the other is not.  And it’s quite possible they’re both wrong.  I did a thought experiment a few times where I believed in Jesus, and I had great faith.  Even in this case, I would still be uncertain.  My faith would be disturbed by the equally strong convictions of Muslims who believe that Jesus is not the son of God.  It seems to me that if either side has evidence to support their beliefs and dogma, the opposing side likely has equally convincing evidence to the contrary. 

So I kept asking myself, what is wrong these people of faith?  How can the Christians and Muslims be equally convinced that they are right, and the other is wrong?  I struggled with trying to understand this for years and got nowhere. 

I've recently learned that the biggest obstacle to my understanding was a semantic one.  I thought that faith and certainty were analogous (at least in the context).  That is absolutely wrong.  And this problem does not result from my skepticism.  In fact, it’s a bigger problem when people of faith make this same misconception that I did.

Certainty and faith are not only different things, they are mutually exclusive.  If you are certain of something, you don't need faith.  To have faith is to acknowledge uncertainty, and choose to believe something regardless.  In this way faith is a choice, and it can encourage engagement in the mystery of life.  Certainty is a refusal to accept that an alternative can even exist.  To be certain is not to make a choice, but to assume that there is no choice to be made.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.” 
–Socrates

What Socrates is saying, in a very definitive way, is that to be certain of anything is unwise.  Likewise, the Buddha teaches us to question everything.  Why?  This can be difficult to really comprehend.  We immediately think of ‘perfectly reasonable’ things that we are certain of.  I’m certain the sun will rise tomorrow in the East.  I’m certain that Ronald Reagan has not recently risen from the dead.  But essentially, these certainties are born of mindlessness, a lack of engagement.  For example, many such certainties are held because we've not seen evidence to the contrary (and not because evidence could not exist or arise).  To be fair, mathematical proofs may be a genuine exception, but I’m not going to discuss that here

And you might argue that there is a sort of pragmatism about certainty.  To act as if tomorrow's sunrise was genuinely in jeopardy would create a lot of very practical problems for individuals and for society.

Getting back to Socrates though, we don’t actually know the things we know.  We assume the things we know.  I've found that acknowledging that my assumptions are only assumptions, and not knowledge, has opened up my mind to a universe of possibilities and wonder.  The word assumption has a negative connotation because one thinks an assumption can be wrong.  But a certainty can be wrong as well, so what's the difference?

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” 
–Stephen Hawking

By acknowledging my ignorance and assumptions, the “knowledge” that the sun will rise tomorrow becomes faith that it will.  And I have faith that Zombie Ronald Reagon is not walking around somewhere eating brains.  But I allow that there’s an outside chance that he could be.

So earlier, I asked a question which I have not answered yet.  What is wrong with these people of faith?  I used to believe that faith was the problem.  I thought that faith made people, especially fundamentalists and extremists believe and behave irrationally.  But now I understand that certainty is the problem.  Religious fanatics call themselves people of faith.  But they are people who have abandoned faith in favor of certainty.  I now believe that faith is not the problem, but the solution.

If the chaos and unpredictability of life is a roulette wheel, faith is not about knowing whether the ball will land on black or red.  And it doesn’t need to be about deluding yourself into believing you know.  Faith is about walking up to the table and placing a bet.  Faith is a perspective that the reward is worth the risk.  And maybe faith is a belief that playing the game is more important than winning or losing.

I’ve always believed that the best way to engage in the mystery of life is by questioning.  And I still believe that.  But faith can be another vehicle for engagement.  I’m not preaching that anyone should have faith in anything.  But I want you to know that faith is a choice.  Recognize it as such, and then choose for yourself.

Thank you for reading.  Please share my blog with others who might find value in it.  May you be well and happy.
-Andy

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Embracing Chaos

When you're facing change, uncertainty, and chaos, you can see danger, and you can see opportunity.  I think most of us tend to see more danger than opportunity, and we become anxious and scared.  I know I have.  But life is dynamic and unpredictable.  And even if you assume there is a governing order, whether by God's will or by laws of physics, we can only grasp at the edges of understanding it.  So to fear change, uncertainty, and chaos is to fear life itself.  And it seems to me that every religion is (or could be interpreted to be) teaching us not to fear.  Christianity teaches that our struggles through hardship and suffering will be rewarded with salvation.  Islam and Buddhism teach us (through very different perspectives) to let go of our illusion of control.  I think the idea is that if you stop deluding yourself that you have control, you'll have less anxiety about not having it.

I discussed in my first blog entry how faith is the antidote to this sort of fear and anxiety.  But I want to look at this a little more.  In reading Brene Brown's book "Daring Greatly," I was really stunned by her suggestion that we should embrace uncertainty.  I had to stop and think about that.  It sounds life-changing.  With that in mind, I want to look into chaos and not just have faith give me courage to face my fears.  But I want to look into chaos and see potential opportunities more than dangers.  I want to learn to embrace chaos, not just accept it.

So how do I make that happen?  How do I create a paradigm shift in my psychology from a perspective of fear and danger to a perspective of hope and wonder?  I don't exactly know - that is the purpose of the journey.  And it's the purpose of this blog.  I want to share with you how I get there.  I believe the process involves mindfulness, gratitude, faith, open-mindedness, learning, intuition, and recognition of the interconnection of and the divinity within everything,  And thanks to the gift of neuroplasticity, I believe such a shift in thinking is possible.

Thank you for reading.  Please share my blog with others who might find value in it.  May you be well and happy.
-Andy

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Letting Go of Truth and Justice

I've always had an interest in knowledge, specifically knowing capital 'T' Truth(s).  And I've always had a desire to understand the nature of all the injustices in the world.  These two topics are often addressed directly by religion.  Despite my agnosticism, I've always had a fascination with religion and spirituality.  But it was generally through the lenses of these two topics, and mostly an abstract or academic interest.  So a lot of what I read about religion, philosophy, and spirituality was concerned with trying to understand how different belief systems dealt with Truth and explained injustice.

For example, being raised with Christian dualism, I was quite interested in theodicy.  Despite the paradox of a benevolent God, countless people throughout history have believed in the tenants of Christianity.  And at least some of them had to be reasonable, rational people.  So I learned about it.

To skip over all the messy details, there is no explanation for the suffering and injustice in the world that will satisfy the skeptics.  There is no perfect defense of God, Christian or otherwise, hence the consistent and infuriating chorus of “God works in mysterious ways.”  And even if you assume this to be true, it still doesn't answer or resolve anything.

As I began to develop a deeper, more direct interest in spirituality, questions of injustice and Truth kept coming up.  Why should I put faith in a God who is quite content to let me suffer?  I’m perfectly capable of suffering all on my own without God in my life.  And unless God would grant me Truth through divine revelation, welcoming God into my life will get me no closer to that goal either.

After quite a while of struggling with these dilemmas, I decided to let go of my pursuit of Truth.  And I decided to choose a spiritual path despite the injustice that may occur in my life and the lives of those around me.  Letting go of these pursuits opened the door to spirituality for me.  Once I did this, I was able to begin my journey.  I started finding synchronicities and developing my chakras.

I've experienced so much growth and learning over the past few months that would not have been possible if I had not let go of these questions.  When I say I let them go, it doesn't mean I’m no longer interested or that I don’t still ask the questions.  It means I accept the reality that I’m not likely to get answers.  With this acceptance, I've found it’s possible to travel a spiritual path while still being perfectly grounded and still maintaining a healthy sense of doubt and skepticism.

Thank you for reading.  Please share my blog with others who might find value in it.  May you be well and happy.
-Andy