On Religious Leanings

Today at work I used a popular colloquialism "Mission Accomplished", where in this case nothing is accomplished other then more failure. This is of course in reference to Bush's famous speech, what is now, early on in the Iraq war. He landed on an aircraft carrier, and proudly proclaimed the Iraq War over, with a giant banner, emblazoned with the now famous words and the phrase that started a debate, the nature of which might have been hostile, I'm still not quite certain.

After the words were out of my mouth, not intended in any way as an attack toward anyone, the individual who is essentially my boss began a heated explanation of how that whole event was misconstrued by the media and how very few sources reported on the fact that the banner was completely unrelated to President Bush's speech. I knew I was now working among more religiously observant people then I had in the past, but I didn't know their predominant political leanings until today.

Shortly after this things made a hard turn into evolution with my boss taking the tact that it's consistently been proven wrong and refuted by scientists, and saying so in language heavily steeped in creationism. The discussion was happening at such a clip I couldn't get my bearings enough to ask him where these declarations were originating from. I'll admit, I'm pretty bad at debate, my mind is often fleeting, drifting away from what I want to say leaving my mouth flapping and my hands waving. Even still I feel I brought my views to the table, that evolution is a hypothesis, not a theory as many people have claimed, that the supposedly omnipotent and omnipresent nature of God allows for any number of creation theories to be true simultaneously.

Past that we swung into personal belief, and I still can't tell if my boss was outright offended at my view that everyone is entitled to their own faith, and that mine allows for everything to be true, no matter how contradictory. Of course he might just have been put off by my insistence in believing in Deism, or the idea that God or some form of creator figure fashioned the cosmos, but then didn't stick around or grant wishes. He kept pressing the idea that if you don't have God backing up his law, that if you don't have the threat of the afterlife to keep you in line, then what you have is worthless, that you'd have no moral compass to prevent you from just doing whatever the hell. I know this to be false because my parents instilled in me a sense of right and wrong. I have my own guilt, the moors of society, and the opinions of those around me to keep me from saying 'fuck all' and (insert heinous crime here). I just reread this paragraph and I feel the need to emphasise just how much guilt I have. Jewish mother guilt. That's how much.

Still in spite of my assurances he seemed ill placated and we eventually lapsed into silence. Others around the office seemed uncomfortable at the debate, it's not exactly par for the course, and people came to bat for me and for my boss at varying times, though so intense was our conversation that they didn't stick around for long. I finished the day with the distinct impression that I had left him both mad and smug due to the nature of my own faith, as well my failure to stand up to his arguments against evolution.

I will admit that the whole affair left me feeling very uncomfortable. This is the first time that I've worked a job where godless heathens weren't at the rudder and I suppose I'm feeling a little out numbered. The insistent, rehearsed and single minded nature of my boss's argument isn't helping. Two of the few things that really disturb me are fanaticism and the concept of absolutes. During the discussion today I very much got the impression that my boss wasn't interested in my end of the argument. In fact the only reason it wasn't a straight lecture, was because he needed ideas and statements to cut off and pound to dust before they had fully formed.

Suddenly my perfect new job is feeling a lot less perfect...

The Mythological Truth

When I was in college one of my classes presented me with what I found to be an amazing concept. What is Myth? Mythology? A quick trip over to urbandictionary.com tells us that it's "A story about mystical beings, powers or events otherwise impossible to perform in reality that only exist in imagination." That's good enough for my purposes. Point is most people believe that the word Myth automatically equates to fairy tales and fantasy, but actually it doesn't. The real definition (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) is as follows "A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth." There's a particular part of that statement that I'm going to point to, specifically "...serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world..."

I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see where I'm going with this immediately, which is OK. This is a back-ass-wards concept I'm throwing out here I admit. It's one of the weirder ideas I've mulled over, but what that second definition is saying is Myth isn't fantasy, it's HISTORY. Sure it's not necessarily history written on pure fact or science, but who's history ever is? The books are written by victors, apologists, separatists, patriots, etc. They're written by human beings. The Holocaust was a terrible event but in some countries it simply never happened! That's how mailable events can be from place to place. In one country, six million people never died. Perspective truth is a powerful thing. So if truth is subjective based on the place, it's certainly subjective based on time. It's interesting how the further we accelerate away from the origin point of an event it can simultaneously become muddier and clearer. Rumor, exaggeration and the human foible of forgetfulness obscures the truth, even as modern explorations into the past reveal it anew and with greater clarity then ever. As a result we ('we' being everyone who is 'not currently engaged in the pursuit of history') accept our view of history as 'truth'. What other choice do individuals have? Sane choice mind you. We live our lives as best we can and generally cannot be bothered to investigate the past with vigor. Instead we simply have to accept the 'truth' as it comes to us.

With that much in mind our history is as correct as we're willing to accept it has to be, so long as it something doesn't come to light that severely alters our world view. In short, we believe the past to be true. Great, how wonderful for us. We are the pinnacle of thought. Forward and onward into the great future we have secured for ourselves! BUT. Yes, BUT WHAT IF, say, we transposed our selves a thousand years or two back. The specific time doesn't matter, but for the sake of having everyone on the same page we'll say ancient Greece. What were their beliefs at the time? I'm not going to look them up so if I might get something wrong, but honestly my argument doesn't need me to be right to make my point. So once again, what did they believe. Olympus? The Titans? Zeus and his brothers judo chopping their way out of Cronus' stomach? Totally bad ass! All of these things were hot items. I'm sure, they were as real as the abacus, and the senate, and brothels. But the joke is on them! HA HA! Only a retard would believe in an angry mountain god that juggled lightning and assumed the shape of a bull or goose to turn women on (Another truth: Lowered standards of appearance back then, kinda feeling like I missed out).

So, we have our indomitable truth. It is real in ways that no civilization has ever manifested in the history (our history) of man! We are as real as it gets yo. Oh but what's this uncomfortable feeling. Could it be doubt? No more then one hundred years ago. Blacks, homosexuals, women, Arabs (they were all Arabs back then) the Chinese (they were all Chinese back then) and frankly everyone on the planet who wasn't white, male, and of European stock (and even some who were) were all second, third, and sometimes not even eighth class citizens. SHOCK, OUTRAGE, POLITICALLY CORRECT STATEMENTS AND HAND WAVING. Well I'm sorry it was the TRUTH. Larger then life at the time. The white man- Wait no, the CHRISTIAN MALE was the most potent entity on the planet. Universally manifesting the will of a benevolent/wrath-actioned deity. He could do no wrong and everyone else that didn't have enough money or army to say otherwise better damn well step back! Wow. Now that's a lot hotter then some goose. Seriously.

But was it true? By today's standards? No. By today's standards he was a brutish, racially-centric oaf that couldn't see past his own inflated self image. By today's standards he was wrong, his truth was false. Well, he might have been depending on who you talk to, but beyond that there have been a ton of other truths that have changed in the last hundred years. The fracturous state nations of Europe have become a single high functioning union, we split the atom, made up string theory, then tried to justify it, etc. Our knowledge of medicine, the human body, the sciences, concepts of tolerance/acceptance, we have grown and changed as a people, as a species. But the truths we're sitting on today are as transient and unsound as the truths the Greeks clung to, which gets us to the meat of my argument.

In one hundred years we won't recognize our world. The advances we've seen in the last hundred years alone have easily outpaced the grandest achievements of the last thousand. I don't see why that would slow down. Knowledge begets knowledge. Growth and change are cumulative. So in one hundred, two hundred, five hundred years surely we'll see our understanding of the universe around us stood on it's head (at least on it's side), made to weep as it's arms are folded behind itself and it's forced to the ground. With it's head bagged and it's hand's cuffed, our present day will be taken to a facility in another country and tortured for truths that we simply don't have the technology to employ in the present day and age. Advanced water boarding for archaeologists my friend. They will simultaneously know more about ourselves then we ever did, and be baffled by the simplest of things we understand intimately (remember more and less obscure?), and when the day ends it will be their truth, and it will overwrite ours.

Again, thanks to the nature of time and history our truth is transient. Something that will be unmade and remolded by those who come after us, just as we have remolded the truth of the Greeks. Our truth will be proved false eventually, but does that make our truth, as we perceive it now, right now, does that make it wrong?

I don't believe so.

It's our truth. We've experienced it. Just as personal truth and understanding of the world varies from individual so it does from era to era, but just as individual truths are real from person to person, so it is equally true for the era that experienced it. Their truth is just as real and valid as ours. They didn't experience a world only half understood, with limited and faulty knowledge. Boy their knowledge was cutting edge! They KNEW that their mighty creator king was on his mountain with his vengeful, oft-cuckolded wife watching his every move, trying to keep him from his night out on the bull... swan... thing. They KNEW! Just as we know now that the atom is the smallest particle in a calcium molecule, and if you mess that up you better run as fast as your legs can carry you (which will never be fast enough. Ever). Just as the future knows things about us we can't see beyond the edge of our horizons with their tri-optic eyes and super sciences.

Like Alexander Leek said in the Mothman Prophecies 'If there was a car crash ten blocks away, that window washer up there could probably see it. Now, that doesn't mean he's God, or even smarter than we are. But from where he's sitting, he can see a little further down the road.'

We're experiencing mythology every second of every day. The truth of now becomes the quaint (sometimes pagan, sometimes heretical) ideas of yesterday. Something to be looked upon amusement, while used to make those of us lucky enough to live in the 'modern' era feel great about how superior we are. Well I don't buy into that. I think the truths of yesterday are just as potent, still possibly just as alive as our truths will be as the future of man chuckles over it as he picks through our graves. What if Zeus is still on his mountain? sitting back on his throne, picking golden lint out of his divine belly button while wondering why chicks aren't into the bull thing anymore?

Wondering where his truth went?