Opinion or Truth

Good morning,
first I must apologize for the lack of an entry yesterday. Second, I must thank everyone who spoke like a pirate on Friday and brought smiles and happiness into each others’ lives with all the silliness and fun that such a thing causes.

Yesterday I was talking with various people throughout the day, from the rich to the poor, the educated to the barely literate; people from all walks of life, all sorts of professions; each of which having their own set of beliefs. Their own truths and opinions. To many people their beliefs are mutually exclusive to any other beliefs that exist. Many people have rigid beliefs that are unchanging while others are more flexible and, accepting that they maybe do not know everything in this life, allow their beliefs to change over time as more information is made available to them. While many beliefs may sound believable and reasonable, some people’s beliefs may seem odd and illogical to us; I am reminded of the story of the old woman who attended a lecture on astrology and, to quote from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down ; I believe referencing Stephen Hawking’s “a brief history of time”)

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”

Many religions actively encourage us to go out and preach our beliefs; to share them with the world and convert people to our way of thinking. I believe, in ancient times, this would not have been so much of a problem. We would be comparing our deities; not comparing God to that we have learned about life, the universe and everything.

The things we learn through science test our faith. The idea that we can build something with a circumference of 27 kilometres underground that could reveal the secrets of how the Universe, and therefore life, came into being is a big test of faith. Some religions adapt. Some religions allow for such discoveries to be explained as “part of god’s work” while others use their beliefs to dismiss anything that doesn’t fit within the confines of their religious teaching.

When I was much younger, I remember giving a talk about belief; about what I believed, a sermon with a message. The sermon has dated poorly, but the message is still the same.

What we believe to be truth is our perception, our opinion and interpretation of what we see. What we believe isn’t any more or less right than what anyone else believes; what we believe works for us. If we want to believe God made everything and science is just discovering his work, we can believe that. If we want to believe there is no god and everything is just the work of an evolutionary chain of events with chance and natural selection taking precedence, then we are free to do so. If we want to dismiss everything and believe something outlandish like “It’s turtles all the way down” then we are free to do so. We are free to tell others of our beliefs, to discuss what we feel to be true; if we are flexible then we may find a convincing argument altering the way we see the world. If we are rigid, even in the face of undeniable proof we will not change. But really, that is all right. There is nothing wrong in believing different things; variety helps make the world go around.

My personal belief is that of a Christian God, but I am not inflexible. I read the teachings but look for the message; the Bible is a collection of stories of truth, but seen through the perspective of its multiple authors. When science discovers or creates something new and wonderful, I embrace the ideas; I celebrate our genius and ingenuity. But there is room for both my faith and science. They are not mutually exclusive. Science is reverse engineering the universe and up until now it has yet to conclusively prove or deny the existence of any deity. In fact, there are no experiments you could do to conclusively prove than God does not exist; the existence of our Lord is always taken on faith.

My thought for today is to be tolerant of those whose beliefs conflict with our own; whether the beliefs are on religion, politics or any other topic.

It saddens me that people are dismissing Sarah Palin and making disparaging remarks about her because of beliefs she is reputed to hold. She is entitled to hold any beliefs she chooses; yes she is in a position of power, but if there was concern about the relationship between her beliefs and her abilities, she would not have been chosen to be the governor of Alaska, the mayor of Wasilla or the republican vice-presidential nominee for our current election. I do not know enough about her to judge her unfairly. I have not been subject to her political or religious views. I do not know whether she is, or will be, good in such a position of power. But I will not dismiss her out of hand because (what I have been told are) her beliefs conflict with my own.

Everyone has a right to believe what they will. To see their own truth in which ever way works for them. It does not make them less of a person. It does not make them any less intelligent. We need to accept them, tolerate them and not dismiss them unreasonably. There is nothing wrong in being different.
Thank you.

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