Believe it or Not

I am struck by the range of belief that exists among believers--especially those who say they are "spiritual but not religious." Some believe the Bible or other so-called sacred texts are literally true. Some say they are figuratively true, or true in some sense, but not others. Some believe God is a Father who is jealous, loving, and Who needs to be prayed to. Others say that image isn't complete enough to describe God.

In any event, there seems to be a tent of belief of varying sizes that believers may or may not fit under depending who is judging whom. Evangelicals around the tent pole, but Catholics don't fit under it to them. Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians--not quite in or out for the Church of Rome. Mormons, Christian Scientists--definitely out for the main streamers, although they seem to be in to themselves. Quakers, anyone? Other religions or belief systems are no different. Why else would there be Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed Jews, to say nothing of the "Jews for Jesus" believers? Don't even get started on Sunni, Shi-ia, and Wahabi belief systems among the Muslims--and what about Black Muslims?

They may tolerate one another and even live as peaceful neighbors, but among believers of any stripe, there is something fundamentally flawed with those whose belief systems are at variance with their own; they are simply wrong and bound for some sort of hell anyway.

Most of the accounts used to form religious belief systems were written before we had any true sense of biology, neuroscience, cosmology, physics, etc. In light of our more complete understanding of the world and the Universe, would anyone write the Bible or religious text, or come up with a prophetic system about life and the afterlife today like the authors wrote thousands of years ago? If someone wrote such a text that flew in the face of what even a fourth grader knows to be true, who would believe it? Who would use belief in it as a litmus test for another's relative virtue, let alone worth?

Most of us will agree that if conscience is to mean anything, belief cannot be compelled. Compliance or agreement can be tortured, argued or deceived out of someone else, but if they don't really believe, they don't really believe. How many true believers would rather break bread with someone who lies and confesses a similar belief than be a loving neighbor to someone who honestly and in good conscience simply does not believe like they do? Where does that leave someone who believes in neither the miraculous or the supernatural?

We're All Dubious Idiots Blowing Here

"Now everything’s a little upside down,
as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What’s good is bad,
what’s bad is good,
you’ll find out when you reach the top
You’re on the bottom."

So sez Bob Dylan.

Like most of you

I am both smarter and dumber than I seem.

Lao Tzu

"The sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees. He lets go of that and chooses this."

Dubious Dylan

"I'm in love with a woman who don't even appeal to me." That's from Dylan's Grammy winning hit "Things Have Changed." Like a lot of Dylan's more subtle stuff, when I first heard that, I didn't get it. It seemed so simple and, yet, so impossible. Now, it seems so impossible and, yet, so simple. There you go.

Squash-ade???

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. OK, I get that. What do you do when life gives you zucchini squash? Lots of it?

Two kinds of fetching dogs

One kind runs after the ball and brings it back in doggy hope you will throw it again. The other kind runs after the ball and keeps it in doggy fear you will throw the ball again. Which would you rather throw for? Think carefully...

There are two kinds of settled personalities

Those who have figured out that none of it matters, and those who have figured out precisely what matters.

The Dualism from Calvin and Hobbes

Hobbes: Whatcha doin'?
Calvin: Looking for frogs.
Hobbes: How come?
Calvin: I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.
Hobbes: Ah, but of course.
Calvin: My mandate also includes weird bugs.

There are two kinds of people...those who obey the inscrutable exhortations of their souls and those who do not.

And there is not nearly enough reference to Calvin and Hobbes.

There are two kinds of pained people

Those who suffer from clinical depression and those who have suffered a loss that comes from being human--a love, a relative, a job, a personal belonging. The first needs a shrink and the second needs to grieve. In the second person, the loss must be felt, must be plumbed, put in perspective, and ultimately the grace must be found to accept it. Absent that, the second person can become the first.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128874986

There are two kinds of friends

Those who will help you pack up your home and move to a new place, and those who won't. (The really good ones will stick around and help with the cleaning.).