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Alan Watts
Personally, I do not harbor a belief in God. I have, instead, a faith in God inextricably coupled with
humanity: as creations, God is in all of us and faith in humanity is faith in
God. One cannot exist without the other. It is the placement of God beside us,
or rather, above us, that makes "believers" prone to self-loathing
and have an inherent distrust of humanity. (Saint) Augustine of Hippo gave us
the vehicle for self-loathing in Original Sin and its transmission through sex.
"We're all sinners, born in sin" is the great leveling retort for
many Christians who need to dispel any appearance of self-righteousness.
So perhaps belief in Original Sin is...crap. It certainly is the
greatest guilt complex mankind has ever had, the kind that has forced him to
compensate with a bravado of wars.
The Power of Blind
Belief
It's time we should qualify the term "belief" by saying that what is
meant is really "blind belief", belief where no substantial proof
exists, like belief in a myth or belief in a rumor. But that qualification does
not lessen its power. Blind belief has erected monuments and created wars.
Perhaps the true power of blind belief lies in the hold it has on the believer:
the one who believes that all gay men die in diapers believes (or wants to
believe) everything Pastor Patrick Wooden puts forth. The power of blind belief
can lead the believer to automatically respect almost anyone with an
"Rev." in front of their name.(5)
Blind belief has a kind of "trickle down" effect: the blind belief
people have in religion trickles down -with very few filters - to belief of
everything their pastors say. And it is because it has few filters that blind
belief is strong: education, for example, is a filter that "true"
believers distrust and many times avoid. Qualify that: education outside of the
system of blind belief. That's why people actually believe Rev. Patrick Wooden.
Blind
belief also feeds people's self-righteousness: in order to feel righteous,
people need to be enabled by a belief which is more superior, more uplifting,
more...righteous than others. That's why organizations like Americans For Truth
About Homosexuality have people like Patrick Wooden on their media broadcasts.
The sheer righteous arrogance that comes out of men like Patrick Wooden, DL
("Down Low") Foster, Bryan Fischer and Pat Robertson is astounding.
Yet
people believe them.
Vetting
Your Belief
As we've seen in the Republican party, vetting is not a conservative's strong point (e.g. Sarah Palin). The same could be said for many "social" conservatives: if a candidate says "God" and "Bible" enough times, well, that's enough for them. (6)
And it's the same with some beliefs: "That ole time religion is good enough for me" merely says that the person has never been allowed (or allowed himself) to look behind what today is called his "belief." After all, to question a televangelist like Pat Robertson, a "Prophetess" like Cindy Jacobs or a "Pastor" like Rick Warren is to question what they preach. And they preach THE WORD OF GOD! Looking in the past to believers who promoted slavery, who caused wars, who tortured and killed in the name of God is! The authority of the Bible is never questioned, and neither is the authority of the pulpit.
It's
ironic that more than any other time in history, you (and by extension - we)
need to vet your beliefs, simply because purveyors of the "crap" have
expanded their horizons to such a degree that some of the beliefs they
proselytize are more dangerous than ever: one only need to look to Uganda and
Russia, and at home, our own state legislatures. The culture wars are real. And
politicians who specially pander to the Christian Right are merely enabling
those televangelists and pastors who shepherd their blind believers.
So
you need to vet your beliefs as well as expose the underpinnings of others. And
maybe in vetting your beliefs, you shouldn't be afraid to call some of it
"crap."
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If it were true, we'd be drowning in nasturtiums.
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