EVERYONE’S SEARCH FOR KNOWING
Sunday, June 27, 2021
What is it that we want?
I know my Frankl. I’ve read Man’s Search For Meaning several times, and every time I took away more understanding. I don’t know my bible, but I know many people who know their good-book(s).
I know my news. I know my history. I read obituaries.
I listen to the buzz of public opinion, and still, I believe everyone is searching for some common or unifying theory of the most common unknown and unverifiable unknown, the ‘everybody questions this at some point’ issue – why are we here?
I know from so many sources that as long as people have been thinking about things that have been written down, they’ve wondered about why we are here.
Of course, we know about religion and faith – both the organized kind and the disorganized minds – the notion that there is an answer to our questions, and someone has those answers.
No matter what ‘good book’ you rely on, they all lack proof of a master plan or a master planner. I don’t say this disrespecting anyone with a faith they hold to – I accept they might be correct, but I cannot accept the notion they would ALL be correct.
Just as Frankl is revered for his insights – but falling short in understanding why we are here, he was religious. The struggle, methinks, is not about faith or religion but about that more profound struggle for understanding our purpose and meaning. The tools of religion and philosophy seem to fail. Maybe there is another way to reach a peaceful and satisfying explanation. It need not be ubiquitous. I’ll settle for the one that satisfies me.
If we cannot believe in something, we need to believe in someone. If we don’t have someone to believe in, then we can only believe in ourselves. And when we lose faith in ourselves, our mind goes to dark places of demise. And then we read the paper, headlines reminding us that there is no solution in death either.
Existence for all critters does not need an explanation.
So why do we need one?
We are not part of the food chain of nature, in the same way, as every insect, plant, bird, mammal or reptile – or are we?
Our brain is larger, obviously, which puts us atop all other species. Sixty-five million years ago, long before humans evolved, dinosaurs ruled the earth – until they are swiftly eliminated. By comparison, we’ve scarcely started. We race ahead with technology beyond our imaginations, but it still takes four seasons to make a year, multiple generations to effect real societal change.
If our pandemic has taught us anything, it must be that collective and costly efforts can change many things in a hurry. Not without side effects and shock waves. It will be decades before we’ll really know the actual results of this time in history. Social change, business change, science change – it might be a two-year pause, a two-year reset, or a two-year foundation for unparalleled accomplishments, growth, and improvement in humanity.
Whichever prognosis proves correct, I expect we’ll still be searching for meaning.
Will it be new teachings – fresh philosophy, or will we stick with those of the past six thousand years of our 200,000 years? Should we rely on that as evidence of anything holding secrets of life or our future?
I’ll be happy to argue that the Judeo-Christian ethic at the foundation of our society, our laws, and our governing structures has value. I’ll also add my voice to the chorus recognizing the wrongs that have been wrought in the name of justice, fairness, liberty and equality – because it is so riddled with poppycock talk.
I have friends who cling to their holy book(s). They are predicated upon their belief in a higher power. I don’t quarrel with many of their values, but seeing no evidence of a life hereafter or a governing authority, I think we are at a tension point in modern society that operates much like the earth’s plates. When one plate grinds against the other, pressure builds – fissures form, rocks get pushed up, lava flows and earthquakes shake things up.
I think our human equation works that way too …
We’ll get smarter about it one day, but I hope it doesn’t take 65 million years.
Maybe messiah should mean ‘the arrival of a new way of being’ – perhaps embodied in a person, or a movement, or perhaps it’s just a software app for our phone …
Can we thread belief and disbelief together? Can we weave science and corresponding values in a way that we can accept rather than dismiss each other because we don’t share the same belief system? If someone is stupid, I can recognize the intellectual gap and still like the person for their many qualities. So, if someone is highly intelligent, can I cut them some slack too, even though their beliefs cause me to roll my eyes? My experiments in this arena have produced mixed results.
Here’s my thought: maybe we can acknowledge the values in the Judeo-Christian ethic as a baseline for how society and relationships work without the need to connect them to a faith system that is not supported by fact, not proven by science? Given there is new credence being leant to the UFOs are real arguments, maybe there are many things we should re-think. This pandemic has taught us many lessons, most profoundly, I believe, things are not as they seem or as they are told to us by authority figures. They never were, but sometimes we need an earthquake to prove what will or won’t stand up after a shakeup.
Better understandings of fact and science improve every day. It seems odd that our philosophies should only be a choice of ideas and beliefs from the distant past. This is not to signal I am ready to embrace the next Scientology-like trend because I’m not afraid of how I feel today. I’m just not sure I’ll believe the same things tomorrow or next year.
Do you believe what you’ve always believed?
Will you believe the same things next year?
Reader feedback:
Well said, my friend! I research for myself, since this started...at first, had all that free time! Ivermectin is a cheap and extremely effective drug for every stage of Covid 19... Repressed, unsupported by FDA...why? Well, we know the answer sadly. One doctor was so passionate about it’s effectiveness, he said, “every death after this is murder!”, SF, Lethbridge, AB
What they are saying in France is that the two doses protect you from a bad case of covid but you can still catch it in its mild form and then you can still infect others. So masks inside and social distancing should continue ... , VJ, Paris, France