—This was originally posted long ago. Enjoy. —
Truth does not cease because people give up believing it. – Edward Norman
Truth does not arise because people do believe it. – Me, Paul C.
**Please do not read this entry if you are a child. Ask your parents if they would like to read this before you do. Thanks **
For what reason is it an admirable quality for a person to have belief in the unbelievable? Is that admiration genuine? Or, is it something that is suggested to people by the ones with the unbelievable claims? Does having faith ever hurt the faithful? Does having faith ever help the faithful? Finally, does having faith hurt or help the people or idea you are holding faith in?
Say I am telling you a story about what happened to me yesterday…
“I was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when the knife accidentally slipped and I chopped my whole finger off. I was worried, but I petitioned to the mouse in the wall, ‘Oh little mouse, use your great power to heal my finger.’ Then I pressed my finger back on and it was magically healed. See?” [Me showing you my finger intact, with no sign of being cut.]
“The little mouse in the wall is magical and I knew it. Here, let me show you. Throw your keys out the window and a bird will bring them back. All you need to do is ask the little mouse if it will use its great power to return your keys.”
-Would you throw your keys and ask the little mouse if it could use its great powers for your will?
If so, then you do really expect a bird to come flying back with them; or are you just testing to see if the story has any credence?
If you did not throw them, why do you not believe in the little mouse’s great powers? Is it because this is the first you heard of the little mouse and its power over the elements? Do you not believe because that is just ridiculous all together, the healing of my finger and all?
So, if you did throw your keys, and a bird did come back with them, would you tell everyone you know of the amazing mouse in my wall? (Maybe then I would ask if you would want to give the little mouse $20 for food.)
If the keys remained on the ground outside, no bird in sight, would you tell everyone that the mouse refused to use its powers to help you, but it did use its powers to help me with my finger? Would you share with others that the mouse does not have any powers? Furthermore, would you just not tell anyone because the whole thing is ridiculous?
From what I think, if the bird did return the keys, that would be amazing and a person may want to tell the world. If not, many may chalk it up as ridiculous and not believe that it healed my finger or in its powers over anything.
Why is this relevant?
OK, so there are lots of people in the world wanting followers. Many of them require belief in something(s) you were not there to witness yourself. So, why is it that they are all saying that they are telling the truth and you must believe their claims, respectively, for your own salvation? Obviously, if anyone is correct at all, then there are really only a few people telling the whole truth, leaving the rest as being mistaken in their claims.
Q:Why do many people believe what they do? A: 1. Good Salespeople 2. Tradition 3. It betters their life. 4. They don’t know.
Why do I say “good salespeople” is a reason why people believe what they do? It is because people wanting you to have faith in them use the best sales and storytelling tactics to beguile their audiences.
Fear is the best sales tactic. It is used by instilling the idea that the person will need your product (or belief in their claims) to deal with something they fear. I will give an example of product and one of a person wanting your faith.
The smoke alarm people may use the sales pitch of: “If you are asleep and there is a fire and you have no alarm, you have a bigger chance of being burned alive if you do not have a smoke alarm. Buy a smoke alarm today and have less risk of being burned alive.* *In no way should this slogan be construed as to insinuate safety of the consumer.”
Bam! You are going out to buy a smoke alarm before you go to sleep tonight. That was a good pitch, which caused you to fear living without the smoke alarm.
A person asking for your faith in their claims will sometimes create an idea of something to fear, like Hell or the devil. To avoid this thing you fear, you must follow a set of rules, (usually including giving money to the person or just believing their claims in general). The better you follow the set of rules, the more unlikely you are to encounter the thing you fear. They may say: “Your tithing is like buying materials for a ladder, and your belief is like building that ladder higher and higher away from the fires of Hell.* *In no way should this slogan be construed to suggest you will receive a ladder.”
Now, you are attending services twice a day and giving 15% of your paycheck to this person to avoid the hell-fire, due to that great sales pitch.
Who is it hurting for you to give your money and belief to this person? You feel good, with the assurance that you are safe in the afterlife and that you are surely doing the right thing while you are alive. The person is happy because you believe in them, live according to their lifestyle, and pay for their gas and electric to stay on.
A role model knows best many times, but if they are not sure all of the claims of their beliefs are true, are they then being a poor leader by having their followers join and participate in their beliefs? Though it would be traditional to have a mentee follow your beliefs, is it right?
So, you believe in whatever person or idea because it is what you know is best for you, right? If not, then why do you live the way you do? Is it because you have believed in whatever person or idea since you were a wee, little baby? In that case, I would figure at least one of your role models share faith in that person or idea. In that case, are you a role model to someone? Do your mentees share in your beliefs?
I think it is an interesting point that just because a role model thinks it is the right thing to initiate their mentee into their beliefs, their mentee will lose their choice in what ideas they will believe in until they no longer closely adhere to the lifestyle of their role model, (assuming that the role model guides their followers to be more fervent believers and will not allow them to falter).
Now, imagine that you had a different role model and you held different beliefs. Your faithfulness would have possibly been directed toward a different person or idea because you were led to believe in this different person or idea since shortly after your birth.
But what if they are passing on a belief which they may believe to be true, but in actuality is not true? You would be following the rules of a poor leader, since only a poor leader would have people believe in them if they did not know all of their claims are true.
Finally, for the people who don’t know. If you don’t know why you hold certain beliefs, then you should really just sit still for a while and think about what you believe in. Do you believe all of the claims which affect your lifestyle? If so, then great; but if not, then don’t continue in your lifestyle, acting as if you are something that you are not. Research and check out different beliefs and lifestyles to see if any of them are for you. It is possible that none are.
I guess all I am trying to say is to ask yourself what you want out of a set of beliefs. Then, think of your current set of beliefs and ask yourself if you have faith in everything you claim to believe and if you are getting what you want out of your current set of beliefs.
Going back to the mouse, if I was sly enough to have a bird planted and there with a trainer waiting to have the bird retrieve your keys and have it fly back up to you, appearing as if a bird came to return your keys at the will of the little mouse, would you have believed that the little mouse in the wall healed my finger too? In doing so, I might have made $20 bucks off of you. There again, what if little mouse did have the powers to heal my finger and you did not trust to toss your keys out of the window. You would miss out on the possibility of little mouse helping you in the future.
Don’t always believe what you hear. Don’t always believe what you think you see. Choose carefully and wisely. Your faithfulness in others may end up making you a sucker for whoever gets to you first.
Is it that the great powers of the world, religions and governments, are using peoples’ beliefs to serve their own purpose? Are the “powers that be” just, or unjust, in their leadership? Socrates’s discussion of justice in Republic would lead one to believe that an unjust ruler or captain would want to lead their followers for their own benefit rather than the benefit of their followers.
What benefit is there to the followers to blindly follow their master’s lead?
I understand that a government needs some of its citizens to protect its interests and all of its people; and that a church can provide a community of helpful people and comfort in knowing that they have a community which agrees with many of their beliefs. But when governments and religions have people do things which are inhumane to further their cause, who is really to benefit from these actions?
Paid for by Paul Vincent Catanese for President