Feeling Very Ranty About Fundamentalism...

....in all it's forms.

You may think fundamentalism is merely a religious phenomenon.  The image of a preacher in a cheap suit preaching hellfire and damnation to all us unlucky sinners, using the full authority of the Bible to back up his claims.  Or you may think of the Taliban running wild in Afghanistan, enforcing their own particular flavour of Islam, replete as it was with medieval misogyny and lots of enforced beard wearing.

The dogmatic madness of fundamentalism arrives in many forms however.  As these things should, let's start with a story from my own surreal catalogue of experiences.

I was chatting to someone the other week, and the subject turned to her being an atheist.  Now my take on atheism we shall arrive at presently, me considering myself to hold what approximates a weak atheist position, which may also be called agnosticism.  Somewhere in this conversation I referred to astrology and the way I find it useful.  I have to say I have never seen a conversation end so quickly and it got me to thinking if it was really me who needed to defend my thinking.

The thing I am beginning to understand is that the tighter someone chooses to hold on to their system of belief, and indeed atheism is a system of belief, the more frightened and insecure they are.  One sees this in the way people are prepared to fight and to go to war to defend what they think is right, or rather what they believe to be right.  Thus we had the crusades in the middle ages, we have ongoing conflict in the middle east, we have people prepared to fly a plane into a building or walk into a crowd and detonate the bomb they are wearing.

Aha then, the atheist will proclaim, as they sit back and laugh at all the religious people killing each other to see whose imaginary friend is the best.  However, we have seen militant atheism in places like the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, and Albania.  This was a part of the Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist doctrine, a doctrine held to as fervently as any religion.  Prominent atheist such as Richard Dawkins likewise are vehemently opposed to religion and belief. 

So then, we have the true believers, no matter what their creed.  They believe it and it must be so because of that.  They are a Christian, then Christianity is right and all other beliefs are wrong, they are a Muslim, then Islam is the only true way to God, they are an atheist, then there is no God or gods, and those who say there is are all wrong.  Or it may be a belief in a political system, or an economic system, or even on down to your football team.  It is tribalism writ large, a contest of tribal gods and heroes, vying for supremacy in the hearts and imaginations of their followers.  Those who don't believe in our tribal god are deluded, or those that think there are gods to help them are deluded.

All this comes down to fear and lack of reason.  You may know the arguments that you use to defend your beliefs ten different ways from Sunday, you may be absolutely convinced you have all the answers.  Guess what, you don't!  All you have is fear, and that is making you cling on to what you think you understand even tighter, and is driving you further from reason and open dialogue.  It happens all the time, people adopt a belief system, absorb the teachings of said system, and are thoroughly indoctrinated.  In the end they think they have the answers not only to their own problems, but to everybody else's.  They end up narrow-minded, judgemental of all the poor sinners who haven't seen the stunning revelation of the truth according to them, and they end up making themselves miserable, wondering why the world hates them.

Fear not though, there is hope.  There is no right way or wrong way, there is only ways.  It's more important to question what you think and believe, all the time.  It doesn't matter if there a god or great flying spaghetti monster.  What matters is how you live your life (cliché alert).  Do you help humanity by criticising people's beliefs?  Or by actually helping them?  Do you serve humanity by trying to prove your ideas are right?  Or by helping them?  Walk in the truth that no one has the whole truth.  If there is something bigger than all of us, don't pretend you have managed to comprehend the infinite and suddenly understand it.  If you have had a life changing insight, let people see it and not just hear about it.  Tolerance, forbearance, compassion, and love are more important than what is right and wrong.

And, now, with almost perfect timing, here is a quote I just read from the Dalai Lama:  The more contact we have with one another and the more we come to understand each other’s values, the greater will be our mutual respect.

Om, salaam, shalom, peace.

A Drunk Trying To Ride A Bicycle

I remember one drunken night many years ago.  The end of the night came and it was time for me to hop on my trusty push-bike and head home and crawl into bed.  This of course raised an interesting question; was I at this stage in any state to ride a bike?  Of course at the time such questions were not in the scope of my consideration, and I bravely took to the saddle and attempted to get my feet into the toe-clips.  This effort took me around about 2 meters before I crashed into the gutter I had launched myself from, and I found myself struggling not to fall over and lose what little dignity I possessed.  So up I hopped again and managed to get a start.  This attempt was moderately more successful, and I wobbled across the street and crashed into the gutter on the opposite side of the road.  Undeterred, I mounted up again and finally managed a more or less straight line and an unsteady and leisurely progress back home.

I thought about this incident several years later when I read Martin Luther's analogy of the church as a drunk trying to ride a horse.  First said drunk must make an attempt to climb up into the saddle in what must be a great piece of visual comedy for all casual onlookers.  Attempt to get foot in stirrup, foot slips, drunk ends up flat on back in whatever the horse has managed to leave on the ground.  Drunk climbs up, more or less gets in the saddle this time, but promptly slides off the other side and hits the ground again.  Drunks climbs up from side he has just landed on, mounts his horse and promptly falls off onto the side he originally started from.

Luther was trying to illustrate how he saw the church blithely falling from one extreme of thought and behaviour over to the other extreme.  We don't however have to be religious in any way to see that the behaviour of a church, which is after just a bunch of people, is shown as an example of the thoughts and behaviours of humanity in general.  Societies can often lurch from one extreme to the other and the balancing act of maintaining the middle ground is as difficult for us collectively as it is for our mythical drunk to stay balanced on his horse. 

It may be in the end that seeking to make a fair and balanced society for the interests of all then is either a delicate balancing act, or more likely, it is an accident waiting to happen, a perilous lurch towards extremism always a dangerous possibility.  In Australia and the United States (and no doubt in other countries) we are seeing the right and left of politics becoming more extreme in their posturing and the middle ground is rapidly starting to disappear, and we are all feeling that dangerous sway in one direction or another. 

It is hard to avoid being embroiled in polarising debates, to avoid taking sides, and to objective and able to consider both sides of a debate and to remain neutral.  Some would say it is impossible to be 100% objective.  We all have our biases and our blind spots and our places we fall down.  The best we can hope for is to maintain a sober outlook, and to do our best to find the middle way through life, even when it seems to be just a slender thread.

Winter's Almost Over, Spring Is Almost Here!

Had to go out and do a few things today, and managed an hour in the sun.  It was starting to get a bit warm out there, so much that I was feeling a bit uncomfortable for it.  It won't be long now before it is too hot in the midday sun for me and my fair complexion and reddish hair, and I will once again be back to looking for shade in whatever form it comes and forgetting to bring my hat when I need it. 

It still therefore, boggles my mind why I choose to own a convertible some days, but then I get out on a warm winter day and enjoy the interplay of warm sun and cool wind, while the road flows under my wheels.  I feel the connection that is unique to open air driving, that thing we lose when we travel in cars with the windows up and the air-conditioner always on.  It's that connection to the mechanical noises, the road, the sounds of other cars, and to the smells of the world around us.  Motorcyclists know it well, even as they balance on two wheels and try to avoid the blissed out masses with the windows up, the air-con going, and the radio blasting while they text on their phones, who are as determined to wipe them out as any Volvo driver ever was in years gone by.

I think we miss that connection to the world around us and surround ourselves with little cocoons, whether it as we walk down the street with our headphones in, or wrapped in a cocoon of our anxieties and worries.  All the things that stop us from being mindful and aware of the world and other people.  It becomes a way of losing spiritual situational awareness, and often we don't realise the trouble we are headed for until it is too late, and we are headed for the cliff and about to plummet into the abyss beyond. 

Materialism and love of things will conspire to wrap us in a soft warm cocoon of ignorance to the world around us.  So, put the roof down, take the headphones out, turn the telly off, step away from the computer, wind the windows down, go out in the garden and connect with nature and humanity.  Enjoy the sensations and be mindful and enjoy the genuine joy and bliss that comes from being a part of the whole, and not just an individual imprisoned in a cocoon.

A Nice Relaxing Evening

It's another Saturday night here for me, recovering from having a few too many last night and staying up late.  Was going to go out again but have instead chosen to come home and recover.  I was hoping to take off to Sydney for a work gig with a trade show, which would have involved two days work and a bit of playing tourist, but alas it seems I have been dashed in my hopes of securing a couch or a floor to crash out on for the week, and I sincerely don't want to sleep in the back of the truck.

I am slowly working through the whole getting over Sue process.  I have my days of feeling angry about things, but I am determined to remain in a place of gratitude for the good things. I take this opportunity to express to her my apologies for the times I failed her as a partner, and to forgive her for the things that hurt me and made me feel let down.  I wish you well Sue, may the universe life you up and let you find happiness and success in life, I bless you to go forward and grab hold of your dreams.

In the meantime my immediate plans are to finish the current university subject I am undertaking, and I am determined to pass and put it behind me.  I will certainly take on another subject or two at some time in the future, but for the moment I need to consolidate things, work and save some money ready for the next set of adventures I want to embark upon.  I have suffered a great disappointment and sadness, but I also recognize that this is part of something bigger than me, and I now have the opportunity to do some new and different things and see new places and enjoy some friendship and good company.

Wish me well...