As promised . . . How 3 Buick guys could help us understand religious dvisions .

Discussion in 'Help From Above' started by elagache, May 7, 2015.

  1. elagache

    elagache Platinum Level Contributor

    Dear V-8 Buick big-block armchair philosophers,

    Yesterday, I thought of a cute way to get across an idea of how we should consider religious differences as differences of experience - not simply ideology.

    Some of you might be familiar with the parable about the blind men and an elephant. The Jain version goes like this:

    Some people want to believe that there is a single unified way for humans to be religious and we are simply experiencing isolated fragments that are too incomplete for us to perceive any whole.

    Yet, that seems to shortchange almost all religious traditions and provides no explanation for what are explicit contradictions in human spirituality. Perhaps the most convenient is that Jesus either - is - or - is not - the incarnation of God. Jesus cannot be both at the same time.

    So I would like to offer another parable that is right up the alley of any Buick muscle car fan:

    Three Buick guys turn a corner at a car show and they all exclaim in joy: What a beautiful Buick muscle car! Then the trouble starts. Because all in the next moment The first says: I havent seen a 1965 GS in Seafoam Green, in so many years! The second says: I havent seen that color combination on a 1968 Gran Sport 400 since High School! The third says: It is so nice to see a GSX in Apollo White, Saturn Yellow was so much more common!

    Each man blinks and looks the other in the eye. What do you mean? Cant you see that this a Buick _________? The first man walks up to the car and says: Cant you see that this is 1965 steering wheel? The other two men look and one sees the 1968 wheel and the other the 1970 wheel. The second man opens up the hood and . . . . The first man sees a 401 Nailhead, the second man sees a Buick 400, and the last man sees a 455. One of them fires up the engine and each man has the sights, sounds, and smells of the engine they see. The three men are in one space. Each man experiences a 2-door muscle car, but each man - encounters - (not imagines) a different car. There is a single real car, but the car is different to each man.

    Of course this seems simply impossible because of nature of our usual 5 senses. Yet spiritual experiences rarely come though those 5 senses we are very familiar with. Nonetheless, human beings do have religious experiences and they can be life-changing. Moreover, human beings band together when they experience the same sort of spiritual experiences. That coherence only makes sense if there is some sort of consistent underlying cause to those experiences. Clearly, some people are indoctrinated into some religious practice. However, such explanations cannot explain other situations of conversion such as the rapid expansion of Christianity in Ancient Greece. Attempts to explain such things as effective propaganda seems far-fetched. Instead, it is important to realize that anthologists consider the emergence of religion to be a defining moment in the evolution of modern human. If religion is a defining characteristic of humans, we should accept that humans have some genuine faculty to experience religious phenomena - a spiritual 6th sense so to speak.

    It is this observation that allows us to return to our 3 Buick muscle car enthusiasts and complete the analogy between the impossible situation they faced and the arguably impossible situation humans face with respect to the three major monotheistic traditions. These three traditions dont differ in ideology alone. Each has a conception of God that is incompatible with the other faith traditions. The reason why atheists and intellectuals snicker smugly is that logic is unassailable. There couldnt be a single God that is everything the Jews uphold, everything the Christians uphold, and everything the Muslims uphold - all at the same time. To return to our Buick guys, the car - ought - to be either: a 1965 Gran Sport, a 1968 Gran Sport 400, or a 1970 GSX. The car - cannot - be all three at the same time.

    Still, there is a problem that cannot be dismissed. Jews are not simply people with a particular lists of beliefs, they experience and live their faith in a particular way. Christianity and Islam are the same. Each in its own way is existential. Believers do not download set of rules and regulations and then run some sort "computer program" to act religious. Consistent with existential philosophy such a Heideggers: Being a Jew in the world is a different mode of being than Being a Christian in the world or Being a Muslim in the world.

    Because religious faith is human experiences, and not a exercise in rational inference, it is clear why religious arguments are so bitter and futile. The guy seeing the Seafoam Green GS cannot explain why the other two men are seeing the wrong color. You just can argue with experience. At the same time, it explains the bitterness. What these disputes reveal is the impossibility of our religious experiences. Like it or not, the logicians are correct. That our singular world has Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - is - just as preposterous as three guys walking up to a car and each man insisting that the car is different from what the other two guys are seeing. In the same way, at least some of the divisions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam represent different experiences that are of a finer grain. Returning to our Buick analogy, these would be like two guys seeing a GSX but one sees it Apollo White, while the other sees it Saturn Yellow.

    So what is really going on? The only plausible explanation is that there is some sort of genuine good behind all spirituality, but one that is only experienced though some sort of disrupting or distorting medium. One possible analogy is to imagine experiencing the world through a kaleidoscope. Yet, it seems beyond doubt that whatever this distortion mechanism is, it isnt neutral. There are times when people experience religious phenomena and are moved to perform deeds most people would call good. We are also aware of people who perform unspeakable evil in the name of that they insist is a religious calling.

    If you come to realize that much of religious division are differences of religious experience, it becomes pointless to argue - a lesson we should all take to heart. At the same time it limits the ways we can respond to those who insist their spirituality calls them to harm others. Of course we can pray that they become spiritually enlightened. Nonetheless, we have no choice to defend ourselves and potentially violate some of our own tenants of faith in order to preserve it.

    Edouard
     
  2. Briz

    Briz Founders Club Member

    Ed, do you really sit around and think all this stuff up? My day is filled with dealing with other peoples problems and if theres any time left over I think about what to make for dinner.:Dou:
     
  3. elagache

    elagache Platinum Level Contributor

    We're all busy! (Re: How 3 Buick guys could help us understand religious dvisions .)

    Dear Briz and V-8 Buick victims of our very busy modern world,

    No I don't sit around and think all this stuff up. These are ideas that slowly come together in the idle moments of my busy day. It is more an expression of the "furniture" that has always been in mind since my college days. This is the view of reality that has been coming into focus all my life.

    And indeed I've got to figure out how to come up with a bracket to secure a power distribution block, fuse block, relays, and daylight running lights controller, all in a very small space on the driver's side of my trusty wagon's engine bay.

    Fortunately, I've got the meals planned through Monday. I kind had to do that since I also had make the preparations for Mother's day!

    Cheers, Edouard :beer
     
  4. DeeVeeEight

    DeeVeeEight Well-Known Member

    I have found that different people have a different sense of reality. Your reality is not the same as my reality. I learned this one day in Manhattan. I was on a busy avenue and some foreigner started talking to me, he was apparently Arabic or Egyptian, I could not really tell. As we talked he moved right into my "personal" space and put his face close to mine. It made me very uncomfortable having his face that close to mine so I backed up a step or two - and he immediately stepped forward into my "personal" space again. I was about 14 yrs. old and I was feeling threatened by this guy and I realized that I was tensing up my right arm, ready to give this guy a shot if he came any closer. Fortunately the conversation ended and I slid away, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.
    A few weeks later I was reading something about the culture of desert tribes people and I got my eyes opened. This guy who was invading my personal space was actually, in his understanding, honoring me. In his culture it is a sin to "Deny your brother your breath" so he was honoring me by getting in my face so I could smell his breath. Frigging weird but it cleared up what was obviously a big cultural difference. I'm glad that I didn't punch him out!
     
  5. elagache

    elagache Platinum Level Contributor

    Right on the mark. (Re: How 3 Buick guys help us understand religious dvisions .)

    Dear Lee and V-8 Buick cultural anthropologists,

    A very nice story that really brings the point home that getting along isn't simply trying to be civil as we have been taught by our parents. The world is a very complicated place and there are customs that feel perfectly natural to those living in them but are literally emotionally uncomfortable for people in other cultures. If you don't know the differences, you can literally hurt another person without any ill-intent.

    That's why my blood boils every time I see one of those "Coexist" or "Tolerance" bummer stickers. Whoever, came up with the designs for those bumper stickers obviously had no understanding of the deep meanings behind those symbols and the bloody history associated with the interactions between them. To just toss a bumper sticker on your car like that and think you have done anything to promote global harmony is about as shallow as to have a Mexican meal on Cinco de Mayo.

    Edouard
     

Share This Page