Believing, by Lewis

In every corner of the world, from the time a child is first able to understand her or his native tongue, they are taught to believe what their parents believe.  They learn what “truth” is in the same way that they learn how to wash their hands before dinner or how to dress themselves.  At first, they do it because their parents make them do it.  Later, they do it because they see the sense in it.  They learn not to touch a hot stove because it burns, just as Mommy or Daddy told them.  They soon realize that Mommy and Daddy are pretty smart and they could learn a lot from listening to them.

Before long, Mommy and Daddy are taking them to church.  In church, they learn all kinds of new rules and “truths”.  Most, if not all, of these “truths” cannot be verified through personal observation.  But because they have come to trust their parents to be truthful with them, they believe them.  Why not?  Lots of good things are supposed to happen to them if they will only believe.

As the children begin to go out into the broader world more and more, they soon discover that some of the other children do not hold the same truths as “self-evident”.  This causes conflict and confusion.  Some parents—hoping at the very least to postpone this internal uncertainty—“home school” their kids.  Others send their kids to schools whose teachings include faith-based instruction.

So far, so good.  The parents are happy and their children are content.  As they grow older, they become more-and-more convinced that their view is the way things really are.  In fact, they may not even be aware that there are people who see the world in an entirely different way.

Sooner or later, however, they are almost certain to bump up against something they read in the newspaper or a magazine or book that seems inconsistent with what their parents and religious leaders taught them.  This could affect them in a couple of ways—it might cause them to become defensive and contentious or they might begin to question what they have always been taught and seek to find the truth on their own.

For example, let’s say the child has been taught and has come to believe in the story of the “creation” of the universe as taught in Genesis.  In fourth grade science class one day or at the movies or on TV, she or he hears that the earth and universe were formed over billions of years.  These two ideas are hard to reconcile.  It would require quite a fertile imagination to embrace both concepts simultaneously.  Now, the child or adolescent is faced with making a choice between two “truths”.  One choice will risk the child losing the good graces of one or both parents and the other will call into question all he or she knows about their faith, including their standing with God. 

It’s pretty clear to me which choice is the one to make if you want to cut your losses.  Thus, many will cling tenaciously to the spiritual tenants of their parents, regardless of what the vast majority of well-educated scholars and learned professors may tell them. 

This would not create too much of a stir if not for the inconvenient truth that these individuals, whose political philosophy is grounded in the same mythology as their religion, use their vote and their voice in furtherance of ideas grounded not in what is known but in what is Legend.  For these people, knowledge is the enemy, since truth is “revealed” but only to the “favored”.  Since they are among the “favored”, they are not morally obligated to ever change their beliefs.  In fact, it is part of their mission to try to prevent ideas they disfavor from ever being seen by the unwashed public.

As members of one or another sexual minority group, we have been victimized by such people for millennia.  Other victims include Jews, atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Farsi, Hindi, Native Americans, Africans, women seeking abortions, socialists, liberals and too many others to name.  Would the U.S. have unleashed the hydrogen bomb on Japan if they had been Caucasian Christians like the Germans?

I must make it clear that I do not see “belief” per se as the problem.  Rather, as Karen Armstrong has brilliantly lain out in her book, The Battle for God, the curse of all civilizations throughout time is Fundamentalism, in any of its myriad forms.  Essentially, Fundamentalism is the conviction (I hesitate to use the word ‘belief”) that there is but one Truth with a capital ‘T’.  All other opinions are blasphemy and must be wiped out.  Most certainly, they must not ever be given any thought for fear that they might pollute the Pure Mind.  For these folks, to think, as was the official slogan of the General Electric Co. in the 1950’s and ‘60’s that “Progress Is Our Most Important Product” is nothing short of Devil’s Talk.

© 11 Jan 2016 

About the Author 

 I came to the beautiful state of Colorado out of my native Kansas by way of Michigan, the state where I married and I came to the beautiful state of Colorado out of my native Kansas by way of Michigan, the state where I married and had two children while working as an engineer for the Ford Motor Company. I was married to a wonderful woman for 26 happy years and suddenly realized that life was passing me by. I figured that I should make a change, as our offspring were basically on their own and I wasn't getting any younger. Luckily, a very attractive and personable man just happened to be crossing my path at that time, so the change-over was both fortuitous and smooth.

Soon after, I retired and we moved to Denver, my husband's home town. He passed away after 13 blissful years together in October of 2012. I am left to find a new path to fulfillment. One possibility is through writing. Thank goodness, the SAGE Creative Writing Group was there to light the way.