Every god can be defied.
No choice, no devotion.
There have been many rebels who have chosen to defy their gods. Without this option, there can be no true devotion to a holy concept. For devotion is only valuable when a conscious decision is made to follow that course, even in acknowledgment of the difficulties ahead. Choosing to be a devout person is good. Choosing to defy the gods is also good, for it reaffirms the basic ability of human beings to make choices. We cannot support religions which say that there are no choices.
Metaphysical totalitarianism of any kind stifles the freedom we have as human beings. It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment. Spirituality is only great when it allows that utmost freedom to follow it. If we suffer from difficulties, that is not holy retribution, and we should not allow it to create debilitating questions.
If you endure a crisis in your life, it may well challenge your faith. Perhaps you will even respond bitterly to your gods and cry out: How could anything holy permit this atrocity to happen to me? But gods are not our parents or protectors. They are there only to inspire us to be better people. They symbolize the inherent choice of this existence. It is secondary whether we choose belief or defiance. What is precious is that we are always able to choose.
Yeah, this is what I don’t get about fundamentalists. If they believe what they claim to, then they ought to understand that their belief is a choice, and that others are free to choose not to believe the same things they do. So why do they try to force their beliefs on other people?
I think the reality is that for a lot of these people, they don’t want to have any choices in their lives. They simply want to be told what to do, what’s right, and they think that other people must operate in the same way they do. They can’t get their heads around the fact that people don’t think the way they do.
Those of us who grow up thinking about things realize very early on that a lot of people simply don’t think about much of anything. They go through their lives doing what they are told to do, and other than that, not doing very much at all with their lives. They don’t wonder about anything, really. They just believe whatever it is someone told them – their parents, the minister, the television, whatever. It keeps their lives nice and simple.
But life is not a simple thing. It is a complex thing, full of mysteries and stuff to explore and learn about, science and nature and all kinds of things. It seems a shame that there are so many people who are unwilling to explore life in all its complexity, but choose to just do what they are told to do and not think about anything. But I recognize – ah, that’s their choice. And I’m more than happy to let them do their thing, especially once I see their eyes glaze over when I try to talk to them about anything complicated. But they can’t turn around and decide to enforce their beliefs on me. They can’t just magically flip the switch and all that complexity, all that mystery, all that sensawunda suddenly goes away for me. I still see it. They can’t deny what is right in front of my eyes every day, in my garden, in my work, in my life. Sorry, I understand life and change and evolution and process and how things flow and change and work, and if you can’t, well, sorry, you don’t get to just deny their existence to me. Any more than I try to deny you the pleasure of believing in your god. If you don’t want to believe in evolution or whatever, fine – but don’t go trying to tell your kid it isn’t real. Let them figure it out for themselves, ok?
And if they want to believe in your god, and deny the world around them, that’s fine, too. But they ought to at least get the chance to learn – and the choice of what to believe. Your kid is going to get exposed to all kinds of stuff in this world, that just how the world is. What they decide to believe in – well that’s up to them. You can’t control it forever. And once you send your young ‘uns off to college, other kids are going to laugh in their faces if they try to deny evolution in their science class, so let them get used to the idea early, ok? If they don’t want to believe it, that’s their choice, too. But don’t make them ignorant for the sake of your god. And don’t try to deny other kids their education for the sake of your ignorance, either. Because that’s just not the Christian thing to do, is it?
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