It Takes a Busload of Faith to Get By

What’s Your Story? (It Takes a Busload of Faith to Get By) Ross Douthat has been on a book tour with his book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. He argues that even though people have been abandoning traditional churches in droves we are just as “religious” as ever. We have just moved away from the old churches to what he calls “heresies” whether it is one of those “Churches of Prosperity” where the Good Lord has some cash waiting for you or some version of a New Age Spirituality where we can learn to harness the great energies of Cosmic Love. Truth is it is pretty likely people will always be believers in something. We need a story to believe in. We are storytelling creatures. We need a story because we think in language. Thinking in language is a double edged sword. There is little doubt that if we suddenly lost our language skills depression would all but disappear. If someone out there has not seen Jill Bolte Taylor’s Ted Talk about her journey, thanks to a stroke, into the blissful realm of experience without language I cannot think of a more worthy twenty minute video on the web (http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html). Blissful as it might be, if we didn’t have language skills we would still be naked and living brief and savage lives. That is a bit of a trade off. I am not sure which life I would prefer but I guess I am stuck with my storytelling brain for now. So what’s your story? Just the facts, mam’. That’s one approach. We can try to see the world for what it is as best we can. We certainly need to do this to some extent. If you don’t you are going to end up on the roof with a cape believing you are a flying super hero. That is unlikely to go well for you. Seeing the world for what it is can be troubling too. To quote from the scene at Elvis’ grave in the movie Spinal Tap there is such a thing as “too much perspective”. Taken as “objectively” as possible the world can be seen as a pretty terrible and, at best, indifferent place. Even those “real life” Hollywood Ending stories are only triumphant if you stop following them when they reach that “happily ever after” moment. Keep reading and things often don’t go so well. “Yes Johnny was a big star at last but then he got older, beauty faded and fashions changed. Now the money is gone and he is doing Reality TV’s Has Been Circuit.” Many a great mind has been lost trying to come up with a way of dealing with the overwhelming tragedy of our brief lives in an indifferent universe. This is not a great story to tell yourself in the morning if you want to get out of bed. According to your story, you have already lost. Lying for the Win! It has been said many times that the trouble with the world is that the stupid people are certain and intelligent people are full of doubts. The fact that you can find very similar quotes on this very topic from Yeats, H.L. Menken and Bertrand Russell suggests this is hardly a new phenomenon in the world and is unlikely to change anytime soon. The rub is that even though the world really is terribly complex and usually way beyond our comprehension those that “delude” themselves into thinking otherwise usually win. This, of course, has had disastrous results in politics as practical solutions that try to address the very real complexities of an issue are, more times than not, swept aside in favor of the simple program built out of idiotic certitude. There can be little doubt why the black and white worldview of Fox News annihilates MSNBC’s more nuanced “liberal” view in the ratings. This isn’t just a numbers game that backs that common conceit of the intellectual that there are simply a lot more “stupid” people. On a more personal level, people guided by certainty and a good dose of self deception tend to triumph over realists and doubters. Psychologist Joanna Starek did a study of competitive swimmers that showed that swimmers that lied to themselves swam faster than those who did not. There is a great episode of WNYC’s Radiolab that highlights that story as well as many other fascinating aspects of lying and how lying can make people happier and more successful (http://www.radiolab.org/2008/mar/10/lying-to-ourselves/). So perhaps the story we should tell ourselves shouldn’t necessarily be “true”. There have been plenty of studies to suggest that people who involve a personal god or spirituality in their story tend to do better in life as well. Many great battles were won because the soldiers on one side had a compelling story that allowed them to cast aside their doubts and fears and throw themselves completely into the task at hand. Belief in a higher purpose is an essential ingredient of self sacrifice. Perhaps having a god or some sort of “spirituality” on your side can not only give you some direction but also confidence to move forward in an often frightening and dreadful world. I see nothing wrong with that in itself. The problems arise when people fashion tyrannical gods imbued with our basest and most petty qualities. There are two religious or spiritual paths. The High Road and the Low Road. On the Low Road, the gods are there to serve you. Because of your devotion to them they will champion your causes. They will bring money and love into your life. If you remain faithful enough they will even deliver you from death. Sadly, this is the road “more traveled”. It is a veritable superhighway compared to the High Road. On the High Road, you know you are sacrificed. Still, on the High Road instead of retreating to the empty promises of the Low Road you accept the sacrifice even if puts nails through your wrists (or, in our slightly more civilized age, plastic handcuffs). Of course, not everyone is meant to be a political or religious martyr. The High Road is all about following the journey of the heart. You know this path already. It is the deepest and truest story of all the stories you tell yourself. It is much deeper than our selfishness. It is a story that is open to the world… that involves the world and seeks to elevate it even if only in a small way. You might say, “Wait a minute! Where’s the reward? By starting out admitting that you are sacrificed and then giving yourself up, are you not just telling yourself that dreadful ‘realist’ story?” That is the beauty of it. It is a “true” story. Where is the reward? It is in the life that is really lived. When you admit you are lost you can throw yourself into your life completely. You have nothing to lose by living as full as you can. You are free to “follow your bliss” as Joseph Campbell would often say. By completely immersing yourself in your life you can experience the fullness of it: the ecstasy, bliss and terror. You are no longer down here on earth contemplating the sacred. You are sacred and every moment of your life is sacred (though, no doubt, some moments will be more sacred than others…). It’s a beautiful story but remember life is a pretty epic and complicated novel. There is plenty of room for subplots. So, go ahead, write the rest your own way. Give yourself plenty of room for happy endings. Write in gods and goddesses too if you like. Just make them Higher Gods and Goddesses that embody beauty, justice and love. Leave some room for the rest of us and our stories as well. That is all I ask. Maybe we will even write a chapter or two together. And remember: “It takes a busload of faith to get by”.

I'm With Stupid.... The Intellectual Gap

We all know it exists. It has existed for decades and today it is probably more pervasive than the traditional divide between conservatives and liberals or as some would like us to frame it: between Democrats and Republicans. I am speaking of the intellectual divide.

I got into one of my many internet arguments today (I get into these daily. I admit I enjoy it.). This time it was originally about Kirk Cameron and his stating some crap about homosexuality being “wrong”. On the thread I posted that the dude is just “STUPID” and no one should pay attention to him in the first place. Someone who apparently shares some of his Bible-based worldview was offended. Eventually, she pegged me as one of those “intellectual snobs” that is always lecturing and looking down on her.

Admittedly, there was nothing I could say. After all, I opened with that S-bomb. I confess that Kirk Cameron is the sort of person that makes me physically ill. I find few things more threatening to our future as a race than the willful use of religion to propel ignorance. It is my opinion that if your faith in God depends on ignoring the discovered facts of our universe then your faith is weak and your God is small.

Sadly, this small God is a powerful political force and the ignorance it carries threatens our ability to evolve and prosper as a nation. This small God is thrown in the face of gays. It is thrown in the face of women. Even worse, there are the attempts to use this small God to corrupt our youth and weaken our education.

Now a caveat: I am not a Bill Maher or Christopher Hitchens. I don’t think everyone that believes in a God is an idiot. I have too many intelligent Christian friends. I prefer to think that God and Science are not at war. I like to think each new discovery makes God greater. Evolution is miraculous. If a God came up with that, He truly is amazing. Science, as a whole, has made the Universe greater. Looking in and out, we have discovered that the Universe is far larger than we could have possibly imagined. I would think that this would make God greater. Instead, so many people insist on limiting God to the tiny and dark world we inhabited when the Bible was written thousands of years ago.

This is only one line of the intellectual v. anti-intellectual divide. We are “debating” climate change. There is a battle over history. Increasingly, ideas are not debated based on objective facts. Instead of arguing based on how things are people are arguing based on how they think things should be. People are choosing their reality and then demanding you accept it as a starting point for debate. It’s no wonder these arguments go nowhere. How can people come to any agreement when they live in two completely different realities?

This brings about the tricky part. How can this divide be bridged? I have heard from Obama critics that he always sounds like he is “lecturing”. Indeed, he is a practiced lecturer. Sadly, I think Obama is actually going through some pains to explain why he believes certain things. He is making a reasoned argument. In other words, he is being an intellectual snob. Perhaps that is one of his faults. Bush would never make much of a reasoned argument for anything he did. He would usually just say what he believes and leave it at that. Sometimes he would throw in a hyperbole: “The mushroom cloud” that Iraq was threatening us with for example.

This is where I get into trouble too. How can you make a reasoned argument without sounding like a prick? And what is it about our education system that leaves so many with such a disdain for learning? Are people ever resentful of those “honor students” who would go on to college and become successful? Has the old paradigm of high school bullying in which the jock beats up the nerd been replaced by the nerds taunting the jocks for being stupid? Has our schools’ insistence of putting students on “tracks” early in childhood, labeling some kids “gifted” and others “average” led to adults having nothing but disdain for both learning and the educated?

If you can’t reason with people then how can you reach people? Is it just a sad fact that people will cling to their beliefs in spite of any and all evidence to the contrary? No doubt this is true for a lot of people. This is not a left v. right or intellectual v. anti-intellectual condition either. People on all sides become rigid in their positions. The easiest way to tell them from the rest is by noticing when the argument breaks down into personal insults. “You’re too… sold out, stupid, ignorant, etc to understand” and the like is a sure sign that an impenetrable wall has been put up. No reason could possibly get through.

So what makes Americans so “anti-intellectual”? My guess is that people don’t like to be told what to think. That is totally understandable. I don’t like being told what to think either. On the other side, the “intellectuals” tend to approach these clashes with the point of view that the people they are arguing with don’t think. It is insulting but maybe understandable too. After all, the evidence for something like evolution is overwhelming and it is hard to respect an argument against it. Still, if you give a person a chance to explain his position you might find it more nuanced and reasoned than you expected. Maybe not but opening with the “S-bomb” is a sure sign that this is going nowhere.

Solutions? I see only one. People need to be taught how to think. The education system of regurgitation has given us a nation of idiots. Furthermore, it has led us to believe in a false division between smart and dumb people. I don’t think the IQ divide is as great as we pretend it is. It is the system that makes people “intellectuals” and “anti-intellectuals”. If people were taught to open and exercise their minds more we could start having real conversations again. People would be able to articulate their positions and wouldn’t have to insult their opponents. These days it is pointless to be taught to memorize shit anyway. I have a Wikipedia app on my phone. What do you want to know? Information is not the problem. How to deal with it is.