INTERLUDE - 4

Merry Christmas!!!

 

 

 I'm taking a break from blogging for the holidays, but I'd like to leave you with this poem:

 

 

 

On the Eve of Christmas

 

                               Now the waiting time is done,

                                              Earth's long winter overcome,

                               Light illuminating darkest skies.

 

                               Weary people now arise. 

                               Greet this time. It has no end.

                               Alpha-Omega enters in.

 

                               Let hearts be filled with Christmas light

                               For in the Child's approach this night

                               It is we who arrive, Love's greatest delight.

 

 

Happy New Year!!

 

Until then, stay faithful.

                 





FAITH

Faith is a stabilizing force in the face of uncertainty. 

The simplest act of faith is getting out of bed in the morning and placing one's feet on the floor to face a new day.

This may sound trite but consider that most of the mundane activities of life are in essence a choice.

For most, facing a new day doesn't seem like a choice.  The day comes without our consent, but getting out of bed to meet it is a choice that involves our volition. 

What supports one's will to act is the force of faith overriding any uncertainty that crosses the mind.

The will to get out of bed and meet what the day brings is not based on knowing what the day will bring, but rather a willingness to engage whatever the day brings.

As such, getting out of bed is an act of faith.

Faith protects one's ability to act in one's interest and in the interest of others.

As such, it can override perception and belief.    

 

For example, those who have survived a horrific event frequently credit faith, as in "my faith," being the sustaining factor through their ordeal. 

On the surface, use of the word "faith" takes on the quality of trust, but what is being said reflects a much deeper intuition about the meaning of faith.

It is interesting that in such horrifying cases the word faith is used rather than trust, as in "I trusted that God would rescue us" or "I trusted others would rescue us." 

The terms trust and rescue are rarely ever mentioned in the aftermath of someone being rescued. 

Faith is.

Perhaps we innately know that in situations where the outcome is so uncertain; where one is shaken beyond belief to the core of one's being, is this resource called faith which we intuitively understand connects us to a force within and beyond ourselves.

In essence, a survivor's expression of faith is also an expression about the faithfulness of those who responded to the survivor's dire situation. 

Faith is a stream that runs very deep throughout the human psyche.

Faith is not a belief.

On the surface, faith can appear miniscule, weak, and a refuge of last resort, but I would suggest otherwise. 

Faith appears gentle but exerts tremendous force.

It can give one the strength to hold on through impossible situations. 

It can allow one to let go of something thought impossible to live without.  

Its impact on the lives of individuals, people in general, and the course human events has been and continues to be immense.

 Faith faces forward.

We are blind where the future is concerned.  We don't know what lies around the corner. 

Yet in faith we face the future and turn the corners of life.
.  
Faith contends with doubt.

Where there is faith there is doubt.

Faith does not require certainty and certainty requires no faith. 

Certainty is matter of one's perceiving a known outcome. 

Certainty can be a matter of holding  to concrete beliefs in spite of  obvious contradiction.

Faith does not require intellectual assent. 

Faith is an action.

Faith gives one the ability to let be or to let go in the midst of doubt.

Faith is a force.


Until next time, stay faithful.













     

 

 

 

 

 



INTERLUDE - 3

Winter is fast approaching.  On one particular cold night when the wind was howling and the snow blowing here on the northern plains, I composed this poem.

**********

Winter

 

                            Sun, lower your flame.

 

                                      Let the hemispheres favor darkness

                                      In their turn;

                         

                                      Let Earth slumber in chilled dormancy

                                      Until you warm it to birth again.

 

                                      You who breathe Earth's frosty air

                                       

                                      Behold in coldness of the night

                                      The beauty of each star's light.

 

                                      Ponder at each frozen step

                                      Love's creative longing for a season.

 

                                      Oh bliss-filled emptiness

 

                                      In whose chilled darkness was kindled

                                      The flames of desire. 

 

                                      Where before time Love sought to be loved

 

                                      There, in the void of timeless space,

                                      There love would seek love returned in human race.

 

 

Norm Wright

February 20, 2010

**********

Until next time, stay faithful.



 

 

 

 

 

                                          



 

 



BELIEF

The human capacity for belief is astounding.

Everybody believes something: Atheists, Agnostics, Monotheists, Polytheists, Scientists, Salespersons, Politicians, Dog walkers, and Dish washers.

You name it, we all have beliefs.

Beliefs shape how we think and how we view the world. They influence our behavior.

We do not come pre-programmed with beliefs. Beliefs are acquired.

Our earliest, perhaps our strongest, beliefs were instilled when we were small children; acquired from parents, grandparents, older siblings, and others. 

Some beliefs are short-lived and subject to change. Some become entrenched.

There are two basic belief-types: 

Non-Ideological Beliefs

Non-ideological beliefs are formed from empirical, fact-based knowledge by which one can anticipate a given behavior or outcome.  As such, they are easily changed. 

For example, meteorologists base their predictions, their beliefs, about future weather on their knowledge of weather patterns and current conditions, but if a weather pattern suddenly changes, meteorologists have no difficulty changing their predictions.

All beliefs possess this predictive quality.

Ideological Beliefs

The most enduring type of belief are those of an ideological nature. Most ideological beliefs were handed down to us, or we gave our assent to them because they satisfy an emotional or intellectual need.

Ideological beliefs are not dependent on empirical or fact-based knowledge and are less likely to change.

As such, ideological beliefs can be concretized to the extent that any change to the conditions upon which they were predicated will likely be interpreted in such a manner as to authenticate the original conditions on which they are based.

As a result, conflicts can arise between those espousing non-ideological beliefs and those with strong ideological beliefs.

A prime example would be the on-going kerfuffle caused by Darwin's theory of evolution, a non-ideological belief, which conflicts with the ideological beliefs of certain religious groups. 

Although Darwin's theory is virtually accepted as fact due to the overwhelming preponderance of empirical data supporting it, there are ardent groups within Christianity*, for example, who insist that God created the world in six days as stated in the Holy Bible.

The belief in a six day creation is not derived from any empirical, fact-based knowledge other than the fact that the story is written in the Holy Bible's book of Genesis. 

That certain religious groups consider a six-day creation to be a "fact" is based on their belief that the Holy Bible is the Word of God and, as such, is inerrant. 

In other words, to believe in a six day creation one is likely to believe that the Bible supersedes all other factual data outside of its leather bindings.

No matter how strong fact-based evidence counters that belief, for those firmly entrenched in believing a six day creation as fact, the factual evidence against it will likely be used to predicate other ideological beliefs to defend their belief in a six-day creation. 

For example:

1) Carbon-dating is unreliable;
2) God created all things to look old;
3) The close genetic link between people and apes is likely the result of sinful humans having
     illicit intercourse with monkeys, or
4) People who don't believe in the six day creation don't believe in God.

The list could go on.

The veracity of ideological beliefs is hard to establish because most are derived from abstract constructs that one has to subscribe to in the form of intellectual assent. 

Subscription to an ideological belief automatically contains subsets necessary to sustain loyalty to the core belief, as demonstrated above.  As such, certain ideological beliefs are assigned values to give them weight.

Some ideological beliefs come to possess an aura of morality about them; that there is such a thing as a right way and a wrong way to believe, to think, or to act.

Frequently, beliefs that possess a moral quality defines a believing community's identity and provides cohesion amongst its members.

*Many Christian denominations and individuals readily accept Darwin's theory.

Belief and Values

Beliefs and values have become interchangeable terms, with the term "value" attached to certain beliefs to give them more weight and moral authority. 

Politicians and religious leaders have have been quick to latch on to this principal, turning it into catch-phrase. 

In the U.S., for example, we hear of American Values, Christian Values and Family Values. But these values are nothing more than sets of beliefs that some have given moral weight to and use to appeal to or sway public opinion. 

Their ability to do this generally attracts support from highly ideologically based groups.  This practice is seen elsewhere in the world, as well.

Belief and Faith

In Christianity, as well as other religions, beliefs are connected to the concept of faith.  In fact, for many, faith and belief are synonymous.

As with linking certain beliefs to values, linking certain beliefs to faith make those beliefs sacrosanct. 

Whereas beliefs of all types can be changed; generally speaking, one's faith or one's values are not as easily changed.

Should one change a belief linked to faith, one has lost faith. 

If it is linked to values, one has lost one's sense of value.  

Why is that?

Beliefs shape perception.

Beliefs are at the core of how we see ourselves and are at the core of what others see in us.

When a core belief, usually an ideological belief (a belief that is linked to value and faith) has changed, in some sense, our identities and our associations with others change. 

We no longer seem to be the persons we once were. 

This can result in experiencing a profound sense of loss and disorientation for those whose beliefs have changed and confusion for those with whom they associated.

Beliefs are ubiquitous and found working at every level of conscious and unconscious awareness.

Beliefs involve complex mental processes related to one's environment, culture, family, personal experience, and overall knowledge.  

As mentioned in Part I, beliefs can be given moral weight or value.

For example, the belief that one shouldn't steal has a real moral value; becoming a universal law.  Belief in the Golden Rule has a strong ethical value found throughout most, if not all philosophical and religious traditions. 

Designating beliefs that are ambiguous in their meanings as having moral or ethical value, however, can be misleading.

For example, American Values, Christian Values, and Family Values connote vague beliefs; in that, not all Americans, not all Christians, and not every family share the same beliefs as to what being an American, being a Christian, and being a family means.

In the United States, the issues of rights; racial rights, minority rights, women rights and gay rights are reshaping long-held (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) ideological beliefs and present a challenge to those who wish to convey by the term "value" such traditional, ideological  beliefs about race, minorities, women, and sexual orientation. 

Of course such views are out of vogue and not mentioned in the larger public square today, but those of us who grew up in the era Civil Rights can recognize that they implicitly undergird what is meant by the majority of those who claim to promote those values.

When ideological beliefs become concretized, they can be considered a matter of faith (in the religious sense of that word). As we shall see in further posts, faith is not belief. 

When beliefs are treated as unassailable matters of "faith," as truths, they can be the cause of violence; should those subscribing to them perceive they are being challenged or refuted in any way.

Throughout history people have persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions because of what they believed, and millions have been persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and killed because of their belief-identities.

We cannot escape believing.

Believing allows us to function.  If we did not possess beliefs, we could not function at the level humans do.

We are, after all, animals.

To be human is rise beyond our animal attributes and qualities.  Doing so is a matter of survival. It is our capacity to be aware and to believe that permits us to do so.

Being the high functioning animals we are has provided us with heightened drives found in our fellow animals.  We can be highly aggressive and violent.  We are highly sexualized animals.  Our appetites know no bounds if left to themselves.

It is likely we would have wiped ourselves out long ago had we not evolved strong mental capacities to counter these drives, and this is where our capacity to believe proves vital to our existence.

Associated with our ability to believe is our ability to will; to act on our beliefs.

For example, our aggressive, violent nature is tempered by music and visual arts which allow us to objectively express and view our nature and beliefs. 

We have evolved social awareness, the concern for the mental and physical well-being of others, and the capacity for compassion and open mindedness. 

As humans we have, within the strength of our varied beliefs, the ability to resist aggression, sexual exploitation, violence of all types and preserve our planet home.

We also have, within the strength of our varied beliefs, the capacity to destroy the world. 



Until then, stay faithful.












 

INTERLUDE - 2

It's time for a break from the heavy stuff.  Trust me, it'll get heavier. 

Here's a poem I wrote in 2009:

**********

 

We are Imagined Creatures

 

                                                   We are imagined creatures,

                                                             created from eternal Love,

                                                   molded from the cosmic dust,

                                                              relation to the stars.

 

                                                   We are imagers too;

                                                              creating a world reflecting us;

                                                    molding it from love and lust,

                                                               but unsure of whom to trust;

                                                    unsure of who we are.

 

                                                             If left to our imaginations,

                                                    what would we creations do?

                                                             Would we create a universe and

                                                     fill it up with cosmic rust, or

                                                              or choose to keep this universe,

                                                     where starry nights still shine on us?

 

 

               Norm Wright

               October 17, 2009

**********

 

 

Until next time, stay faithful.

 

 

 

 

 





FACT

[Norm's notes: Here I go again.  Bear with me as I continue to explore certain concepts.  If I were to write a book, the next several posts (including the first) would have been located in an appendix at the back of it.  Since, I 'm blogging I see a need to put this information up front for reference in future in posts .]

What makes facts factual? 

A fact is some thing or function that proves to be consistently demonstrable and reliable and can be readily apprehended as such by any rational human being.

Reality is a consensus of perceptions.

If the aggregate of human beings, past and present, agree on what something is and this something functions consistently throughout history, that's what it is.   Whatever "it" is becomes a fact.  On a daily basis we don't have to think about the fact that a chair is a chair, that a tree is a tree, or that wheels will turn on an axle.  They've become a given regardless of the language used.

Over time the process of establishing fact led to greater manipulation of our environment.  Facts can be so reliable that they result in concretized perceptions requiring little or no conscious effort on our part.

There are abstract facts. For example, time can mean different things in different cultures, and there are some primitive cultures that have no concept of time.  Simply put, time is the measurement of decay, but the more time is studied, the more it appears to possess functions beyond the clicking of a clock. 

Fact, as a concept, allows us to use discriminative reasoning. The human mind is a questioning mind. Inevitably, questions arise that challenge the factualness of events and things. The endless inquiry of the human mind can readily disestablish a fact as it can establish one.

For example, the Ptolemaic concept of the Sun revolving around the Earth was for centuries considered a fact.  It met the basic criteria for being one:  It was consistently demonstrable and proven to be reliable.  The Sun rose in the East and set in the West.  You could watch it move.  In a manner of speaking, you could set your clock by it. 

From Ptolemy's geocentric concept one could reason many things; the time of day and seasons, for example. It demonstrated an ordered universe that argued against the need for further definition.

Then came Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton who were able to debunk Ptolemy's concept and by extension a number of related "facts" that emerged from it. They and many who followed set a new trajectory for our understanding of the universe and our place in it. 

Facts are subject to change. 

As scientific and historical research becomes more exacting, facts become increasingly fluid and  their establishment limited. 

If the term is used at all, scientist and historian are quick to admit that what they are calling a fact is based on evidence available at the time.  Any person involved in sincere research maintains room for change.  Something is factual until it no longer holds upon being scrutinized.

Scientists are likely to formulate their evidence in the context of theory rather than fact.  This does not mean that scientific theory has no useful application.  Quite the contrary, numerous theoretical discoveries have led to innovations being used millions of people at this very moment.

As with scientific fact, historical fact can change with new evidence.  As scientist probe ever deeper into the macrocosm and microcosm and historians probe deeper into the past, the more speculative the results of their research can appear.

Speculation in both the historical and scientific sense is not a hunch. Rather, speculation of this type is the result of extensive observation and testing to determine corollary evidence. An early example of this process is found in Darwin's development of evolutionary theory. Here both history and science merged. 

The Theory of Evolution continues to make immense contributions to science of living things; especially, to the field medicine.   Like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein, Darwin changed the way we live and changed our understanding of who we are in the living word around us. 

For that, Charles Darwin should be sainted.

In our expanding understanding of the universe, we are prone to see ourselves transcending the boundaries of self, the earth, our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe itself, but have we become any less geocentric, any less homocentric then in the past?

Is there a limit to what can be known as fact? 

Can something be factual that is truly outside of ourselves, beyond the reach of our five senses, beyond the collective memory of humankind, outside of what we know here on Earth?  

For example, when a new element is identified, its discovery is the result of perceiving a differential function of what is already known about elements in general and their constituent parts.  I know of no element, no function found in the universe that is not rooted in, related to, or comprised of things known on Earth. 

What seems to provide us with a sense of transcendence is that we are continually finding the stuff of Earth, the stuff of our physical selves located "out there," in the vastness of space.

No matter how quirky space becomes, its quirks are perceptible to us because we know how the elements and properties that are acting quirkily at some distant location in the universe acts closer to home.  

But if there were to exist a principal at work, a substance or particle in the universe that completely stands outside of what we experience here, would we be able to perceive or conceive it? Can we truly think beyond ourselves?

If our thought process is finite in its capacity to apprehend only that which is factually perceptible, then we remain as geocentric and homocentric as ever.

Ultimately, our endeavors to probe the depths of the macro and microcosm would result in finding ourselves caught in a self-contained circular reality in which all new information is nothing more than a re-formalization of what is already known. 

Granted, such a self-contained circle would be immense, but in the end there would be "nothing new under the sun," nothing discovered which would be completely germane to itself.

What of factual abstraction?

Math amazes and baffles me. My wife teaches math and I struggled with math throughout my entire years of education. She sees and understands some things in way that I don't, and I see and understand some things in a way that she doesn't, and this works for us. We share a mutual appreciation and admiration of our unique, individual abilities which in turn provides balance to our lives and meaning in our relationship.

For theoretical mathematicians and physicists, math is a language and an art form.  There is beauty in math. Math is a transcendent language.  Math is capable of grasping  the intricacies of physical universe, of breaking it into increasingly small parts or conceptualizing and building theoretical new ones.

Every physical object and every function known to humans, including art, cooking, music, and language can be understood in mathematical terms. 

Math is at the core of our understanding what is and how it works.   It can see what the eye and the highest powered telescope and microscope cannot see.   This knowledge is expressed through the use of abstract symbols to comprise exquisite mathematical formulas. 

While facts appear to be limited, our ability to use them in nonfactual, creative ways appears limitless.  If human thought has this infinite capacity, it's conceivable that we could transcend both our geocentric and homocentric understanding of ourselves and the cosmos.

Expressing such information in language would almost totally rely on the use of allegory, metaphor and simile for expression. It would not, however, meet the criteria of fact or theory.

The empirical fields of study such as science and history tends to work within the finite spectrum where facts and theory regarding what things are and how they work are built upon pre-existing data for definition. 

On the other hand, philosophy, the arts, and religion work within the infinite spectrum of thought where allegory, metaphor, and myth are used to define who we are and why we're here.

The human mind contains both a finite and an infinite thought capacity that works in tandem to further human understanding.  Although at times treated by some as mutually exclusive, I would argue they are not. 

While fact is not all that can be apprehended by human thought, the concept of fact undergirds our perceptions of the thoughts we have. Individuals tend to demonstrate a preference in utilizing one thought-type over another. 

It is this dichotomy of thought-type that confuses some with regard to what is fact and what some would consider myth. 

Wouldn't it be interesting if the empirical fields of science and the philosophical field of religion, for instance, would merge into a singular field of inquiry?

Until next time, stay faithful.


Until then, stay faithful.















 

INTERLUDE

I think I may have started out on a somewhat heavy note for my first tw0 posts.  So, every now and then, I'm going to blog about something different. 

I don't want to give you the impression that I'm some pedantic old fart who doesn't have a life. 

I do have a life with a lovely wife of 31 years and our two beautiful daughters. I'm also an organist and pianist who likes to compose music for services, but mostly who does free improvisations. Hence the title of this post- Interlude. There'll be others.

I also enjoy writing poetry, and in years past did some oil and watercolor paintings. 

Since its the Advent Season, I thought I'd share a poem I wrote a few years back.

* * * * * * * * * *

PREPARATION

 



The Advent season has arrived, how swiftly time is passing by.

         "String the lights around the house!" "Find a tree before they run out!"

 

Shop at the mall or shop on-line for those whose gifts are hard to find.

          Start to bake and start to plan for Christmas is about to land.

 

Listen to music, right for the season.

          Buy chocolate and mints without a good reason.

 

And when all is done, and all is ready, sit in the warmth of Christmas Tree

           Lights, sipping minted, hot chocolate with childish delight.

 

Norm Wright

December 13, 2008

* * * * * * * * * *

Until next time, stay faithful.

Words, Concepts, and Context

Language is perhaps the most defining human quality we possess.  The ability to communicate with one another verbally (through spoken or signed words) and symbolically as in the use of written words has permitted humans to engage with the world; to define it and to some extent design it.  Language has allowed us to think beyond our world to ponder and comprehend realms beyond our solar system and galaxy.

We communicate in a variety of languages and dialects, but within every language is found concepts and contextual constructs that are common to most.  Modern languages are slowly merging.  English, for example, is a mix of several languages, adding and adopting words to capture the meaning of new concepts every year. 

Language came into being as a way to communicate differing and diverse experiences through use of sound and symbol which then evolved into words and increasingly complex constructs known as concepts.  All language eventually became concept-based. With the development of different parts of speech and through their combined use an individual was enabled to convey complex concepts to other individuals and groups in the form of information sharing or education.

Concepts, in turn, allow us to string them together to from context which adds greater clarity to what we mean and to our understanding.  The meaning of a concept depends on how it is being used contextually. People can say the same thing and mean something entirely different depending on the context they have in mind.  Humor is dependent on employing this principle as a play on words; saying something that offers a specific connotation within a context that wouldn't normally apply.  Speaking in code is another example of using common concepts within a certain context to hide a cryptic meaning known only to one who understands the code. 

Conversely, people can contextually discuss the same thing but use different concepts to do so.  This often forms the basis for argument or debate because concepts can acquire fixed meanings within a contextual setting. The most common example of this is found in politics where politicians engage in debate over a premise and attempt to frame the context of the premise using conceptual terms favorable to their and their constituents' point of view.

Language is abstract; in that, language is a mental distillation of  human experience into representational forms for the purpose of broader communication and the dissemination of information. Regardless of the language one is using, assigned nominal words and fixed concepts mean the same things in most languages and that is why we can translate something spoken or written in one language to another language. The development of language, of concept and context didn't just happen; it evolved from the human endeavor to understand, differentiate, and identify in a corollary manner the experiences of life. If something isn't identifiable, it cannot be conceptualized and has no use, no meaning, and no known existence.

Words, concepts, and contexts are so vital to understanding ourselves, the world, and the universe in which we live that all other devices and tools created by us to comprehend and fabricate the world in which we live would not have happened.  We would not have science of any kind, craftsmanship of any kind, art of any kind, religion of any kind or history of any kind.

It is hoped that by delving briefly into the role of  words, concepts, and context the stage is set for further posts on religion.  Words, concepts, and contexts are important.  In forthcoming posts I will offer some thoughts on particular words and concepts germane to the topic of religion and Christianity in particular.

Until then, stay faithful.

Welcome to the Faithful Agnostic!

 

Defining a faithful agnostic:

The term used here means there is much I do not know and much I cannot prove, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying.  Let me be clear:  I do not agree with the ardent agnostic who believes that existence of God can never be known.  If one can use the term God, one has at least an idea of God.  As an idea, God exists. That much we all know. I would agree that belief in the existence of a being called God is likely to remain unproven.  I claim to be an agnostic in the sense that the more I know, the more I know that I do not know. Its a confession more than a stance.  I’m a faithful agnostic in that I will try to faithfully pursue knowledge and that mercurial thing called Truth.

About me: 

I'm a 62 year old retiree who has a lot of time to read, study, and think.  I’m a member of a mainline Christian denomination and  have been all my life.  I have struggled with issues created by Christian doctrines, dogmas, and beliefs for most of my adult life. Nevertheless,  I’m fascinated by Christianity, by religion as a whole; the hold it has on people, how is shapes human events and culture, and the interest it instills in me. 

My Intentions:

It is my intent to faithfully ponder questions regarding religion and Christianity in particular.  I make no claim of being an authority on any of the topics I will post.  They are simply my thoughts that have evolved from reading what others have written or from discussions I have had with individuals over the years.  I am grateful to all who have stirred my mind.  Thoughts, being what they are, are subject to change.  Future posts will share thoughts on such topics as “Concepts and Contexts,” “Intuition,” “Transcendence,” “Belief,”  “Fact,” Faith,”  “Christianity,”  “Jesus,” and much more.  Until then, stay faithful.