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Author Topic:   Belief Systems as Organizing Ideas
Justaman
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Message 1 of 2 (33709)
03-05-2003 2:18 PM


The following pages are the beginnings of a full treatise I am attempting to write concerning belief systems as organizing ideas. Although I have decided on and have begun to flesh out many ideas that I wish to discuss in this work, I am currently at a standstill as to the direction of the next immediate chapters. By posting these opening statements as a new topic and inviting comment and criticism I’m hoping to get an idea of the appropriate direction that may naturally be suggested by these statements. I have never studied to be a writer and I write now out of a sense of personal necessity.
IN THE BEGINNING
The question, and it has always been just one question, is, why ? It is an alone thing every one of us asks ourselves, and that which we all ask together. Death puts the universality to the question. Why this, then oblivion? How, why, do I end ?
At this point in human time the question is to us as pressing and pervasive as it ever was. No tool we have yet devised nor angle of attack applied to the question has yielded a definitive answer. Secular rational reasoning has not forever disproved the possibility of a creator or a higher other. Religious or faith-based thought has likewise never proved the existence of the human soul or a benign creator nor even the necessity of either idea. Human inquisitiveness is alive with vitality on the edges of our understanding of the cosmos and of living things, and we are being showered with bits of new realizations that, at turns support then deny both those opposing views of existence.
And in the midst of this mounting philosophic brouhaha, we are becoming. Well, we are becoming large, certainly. One result of this is that we are also becoming- and I really resist using this word, but I can’t summon another more generic one- connected. Economically, environmentally, biologically, as well as in real-time communications, we are all feeling our connectedness. With a sense of alarm we realize that our size amplifies our potential to do great harm, either maliciously or by unforeseen consequences of well-intentioned but ill-planned actions.
How we get from here to where we are going next will be forever bound with our answer to the first question- why ? The question needs a new answer, an answer that speaks not to what possibly is unknowable, but to that mix of being and becoming that we call
NOW
Introduction:
I am Justaman
What may be unknowable is not therefore unimportant, it is only that what is knowable is becoming increasingly, pressingly urgent. If there is a common ground for all of humanity, it must surely be located at the confluence of reason and faith. The wisdom of the ages should not be forgotten, just as all the conclusions of reason should not be dismissed as being merely relative. Suspend your judgment for a time, no matter what your personal beliefs. Let us consider again what we know, how we feel, what we think we know, and how we would like to feel. Let us, you and I, and all of us have discourse, dialogue, discussion, and debate. Though many clashes of ideas have been fiery and tinged in blood, there have also been times of great discussion and articulation of ideas, and these occasions mark much of the advancing progress of humanity.
What I am attempting to do here is to initiate a dialogue in a new and open dialect by, hopefully, expressing what many people feel but have not heard spoken as a whole. A coherent understanding of our past, present, and future is possible. We must not derive only pessimism from the facts of our past, for we are yet only a fraction of a blink of the eye in the long ages of this universe. If we expect to continue so that we can carry this debate into later ages of this world we must recognize and embrace all of the best of what we are, and frame this into a common language.
Already now, every reader will want to know my personal allegiances, and this is fitting and necessary. For most of my responsible life I have done what I invited you to do for a time; I have suspended my judgment. Do I survive in some way after this brief and hazardous flesh existence, and is there a Who, or what is responsible for all of this — even this very question? I honestly don’t know the answers to any of that. Please don’t dismiss me as cold or mechanistic, for I too long for the thrill of rapture and am heated by the fires of conviction.
When I ponder any or all of humanity, what strikes me first are the great good effects upon the individual and the community of all of the major belief systems, and this is an encouraging thought. Rather than focusing on all the strife and discord between adherents of different heritages of belief, I can discern the common thread of bonding within the many congregations of the faithful. The successful combination of easily invoked visualizations in response to the two mysteries of life, with a well-defined and communally beneficial code of behavior for everyday life marks the genius of all the great belief systems. Each faith contains guidance in practical as well as spiritual matters and the link is the belief that all is dictated by a higher benevolent benefactor.
I of course carry my own convictions concerning the relative merit of various aspects of all the belief systems, as does every man or woman whom eventually ponder these things. And, naturally I have formed my own conclusions as to the possible meaning and purpose of our lives. What some will no doubt react to as a threat to their personal integrity and to their community stability, I hope many will respond to with warm recognition and with the same brave honest hope with which I write these words:
We are responsible for our fate and our continued existence in this world, no matter if a superior force has dominion over all of this or whether our individual life forces continue beyond this flesh and blood existence.
The choices we make as individuals shape the choices we make as families, communities, nations, cultures, and are ultimately what define us as a living force in this world. This fact is so obvious as to be almost invisible at times. Any idea that is offered as an organizing belief must be able to guide the person as well as the people. What I am going to attempt to explain, reveal, and otherwise encourage, I feel in the depths of my very being to be vitally important to all of us.
I myself am not important, that is, no more important than you or any other person in this world. Yet, I am not less, either. At this point in my life, in this present age of man, I must articulate my ideas; I can not do otherwise and come to a final honest rest. We are lacking a vibrant and purposeful organizing idea that is capable of seeing us through our present challenges and that can address some of the possibilities of the future as it glimmers into focus. I truly hope-and it is this faith that sustains me-that my voice will be joined by many others, not necessarily in complete harmony but at the very least in a common chorus of compatible keys.
I condemn no person for their honestly held beliefs concerning the two great mysteries of life, yet I will challenge any who demand universal obedience and servitude to any particular vision of the ultimate truths. What the great geniuses of faith have successfully linked, I will attempt to un-link. Responsible moral and ethical behavior; practicing friendly manners such as patience and tolerance; sharing resources while respecting common boundaries; these are universally admired traits across all cultural heritages. All of these aspects of our humanness make us strong and successful, yet all of these behaviors and most other of the good features of our natures are reverently ascribed to, and dictated by, something which is superior and beyond us. It seems to me now, as I consider it, needless, but I can understand that during the crisis and response that forged each great belief system, the invocation of a power beyond the meagerness and frailty of human expertise gave hope that order and continuance were the true nature of this existence.
Where are the miracles and revelations of old that attended the fortunes of the prophets and saviors? Ancient accounts of miraculous deeds and divinely inspired revelations owe as much to the inscrutability of the distant past as they do to centuries of reinforcing tradition. I sincerely acknowledge the genius of the great religious founders, but I will not concede that their ideas were the result of divinely intervened gifts of revelation or that any one of them were other than you and I — human. As I have already said, this thought gives me great comfort and hope.
Let us set aside the squabbling, the condemnation, the trials by blood, the imposition of will and belief by authority of superior strength that has accompanied our search for the answer behind all answers. It may truly be our lot as human beings to never really know the answer to the question, yet it may be our greatest strength and defining attribute that we have survived so far and can continue to survive in the face of such terrifying uncertainty. There are many truisms that I challenge the truth of, many often repeated statements about the human condition that should cease to be uttered because they deny what we could truly attain and accomplish.
To believe is to make a choice. I will not ask you to choose to abandon your deepest and most personally held convictions concerning your existence. I will plead though with every word, idea, and device that my imperfect mind can conjure for all of us to choose to have faith in ourselves, our humanness. We are the authors of all the good that has been accomplished as well as all of the bad. Whether I am a fool or a prophet, only time will reveal. I tell you now that in my heart, I am neither. What I hope you will see and will identify with, is that I am
Justaman.
Well, there it is. Have at it — please. The device of the pseudonym of Justaman is not vanity or egotism, but rather a tactic that I have carefully considered for some time. Although I believe that I have stated my central argument clearly, public scrutiny and comment may reveal otherwise.
[This message has been edited by Justaman, 03-05-2003]

  
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Message 2 of 2 (33710)
03-05-2003 2:39 PM


Thread moved here from the The Great Debate forum.

  
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