I’ve probably harped on this already, but it’s in my heart and thus, on my fingers.
Through a weird combination of poetry and Stargate: SG1, I’ve been doing some thinking and have come to a conclusion. But, before that, perhaps a quick explanation of that combination might prove worthwhile.
I’m currently working on a poem entitled “Have Faith in Me”. I haven’t quite got the text of the poem down, but the title seemed significant, so, like most of my poetry, I am building around it.
Also, while I’m eating my dinner, I turn on an episode of Stargate:SG1. This has become my fix for the week. One that will likely change before I finish this blog post. Welcome to Lockwood-land. As it turned out, the show I picked out, randomly, was the episode where Teal’c has been revived by Apophis and has returned believing in the full might and godhood of said Goa’uld. Teal’c spends the rest of the episode basically dying in an effort to force him to reexamine his life and come to the conclusion he made 3 years ago, in their time of course.
Yes, to the casual observer, they appear to be completely inane and of no relation to each other. And then there’s me.
Both the poem and the show have me thinking about faith. What is faith? How do we define it?
One of dictionary.com’s definition of faith is the belief that is not based on proof. I tend to have a slightly different definition. Sometimes, to me, faith is a belief in spite of proof, but that’s for another post.
Admit it. Once I said faith, nine out of ten of the readers immediately turned to the idea that I was speaking only of Faith. (Note the capital letter which is indicative of a proper noun or label.) But, no, I wasn’t specifically talking about Faith (capital F) when I’m speaking about faith (little f). What I’m speaking of is the inevitable result of the mind of man, in any situation.
We are really a lonely species. We don’t have the comfort of being unintelligent like lower animals that we can simply live in the moment with no regard to the past or the future. A cow doesn’t worry about being lonely. He simply is and his next concern is that patch of grass over there. Us, we are intelligent enough to know better.
It’s a tough concept, first to understand, but then able to convey in simple words. I’ll try though.
Man is a social animal. That’s not really up for debate, it’s pretty much a proven fact. Even the anti-social and loners among us are drawn to spend time with others who are also anti-social and loners. Go figure. We don’t like being alone. We don’t like feeling alone.
Think of an isolation tank. You can’t feel anything. You can’t see anything. You can’t hear anything. You have no outside stimulus to distract you. For the first time in your life, you are completely and absolutely alone with your thoughts. Kinda sends shivers down your spine, doesn’t it.
The simple fact is that people in this type of situation typically lose whatever hold on sanity they may have. We have to have some form of interaction, some form of socialization, something that distracts us from the inner sanctums of our minds.
Once you understand that, the next step really isn’t that difficult to make. Us. Humans. We are stuck in one mind. One body. We walk around feeling so small. How many times have you walked on a very very dark night and looked at the stars? How did that make you feel?
I remember one night, in Arizona, during a lunar eclipse. We lived outside a small little town of maybe 2000 people. The nights there were some of the most amazing I remember. This night, in particular, really amazed me. The glare that is the typical reflection of the sun was stripped away leaving only the rock that orbits our planet. It was simply amazing. Hanging above the desert was this amazingly massive ball of rock that was, somehow, not falling to the ground. I felt so small, so insignificant.
We see images of and hear stories of people dying, many of them pointlessly and we think to ourselves, what if that was me? I think that, if you want any claim to objectivity, you have at the very least admit to yourself that you have no freaking clue what will happen to you once you close your eyes for the final time.
By our very nature, we cannot handle these situations alone. Our minds are overwhelmed by a crushing sense of loneliness and we have to turn to something. We have to look for an outside, well, god (lower g) for lack of a better term.
An addict turns towards something that will let them soothe away that hurt, that loneliness. People, like me, turn towards God (upper G). And some turn towards society.
Mao. Stalin. Hitler. What do these men have in common? Yes, yes they were brutal dictators who slaughtered millions. But they were also atheists. Ok, I’ll admit that Hitler did have some religious writings, comments in Mein Kampfh (probably butchered the spelling). Personally, I don’t see how any man of real faith could oversee such a genocide. Yes, my debating friends, that also includes the likes of Torquemada and Godfrey of Bouillon.
I’m not saying athiests are evil. I’m not saying theists are good. They are people. What I’m saying is that each has a different focus for their faith. Theists generally have a belief in God. While in the case of the Crusades or the current Islam terror campaigns those beliefs are very inherently flawed.
Athiests, on the other hand, technically have no such belief in God, of any form. But, does that really mean it’s the end all of their faith? I would argue not.
One of the great things that I love about Christianity is that it has provided my sense of self and provided me with a strict sense of morals. I didn’t create my own rules, they were created for me. And, as a christian, I have chosen to follow those rules.
But, where do atheists have to turn for their sense of right and wrong? In part, I believe they learn certain things as don’t kill from society in general where murdering somebody is generally frowned upon. But that doesn’t really cover all the bases for them, does it?
Again, I don’t think so. In the lack of that moral coverage, where can they turn? They have to find it in themselves what is “right”.
In general, man is a caring creature. Our sense of wanting to help another is well ingrained in us from our times when we first huddled around a crude fire. It’s one of our traits that has helped us evolve. Especially here in America, the greatest nation ever founded, our hearts go out, around the world when something happens. We are typically the first to respond, unstinting in any help that we can provide, even if it means that we do with less.
Such caring has a price. With it comes arrogance. Not the arrogance that we can solve everything, but the arrogance that we know what is right for everybody. We care about people that we only want to do what’s best for them. Too bad they don’t know what it is, but luckily we know it.
It really has become epidemic, domestically more so than overseas. Domestically, we spend infinately more than we do internationally on goodwill programs. Welfare, Health Care, unemployment, all of these little spending bits which add up to trillions. Don’t worry, you’ll be taken care of.
Why? Because we have lost our focus, our faith.
For me, I know the heart of man. I know the best way to treat people. I look inside myself. I mean honestly, objectively, look inside myself. I don’t like what I see, but I force myself to strip away all the emotional junk that just hide it. Because I don’t like what I see, I am motivated to better myself.
In other words, I’m a big boy now. I don’t need people holding my hand. I don’t need my living handed to me. I want to journey out there, free of any roadblocks. I may fall and bruise myself in the process, but that’s part of the process.
God Bless.
