Paladin
Purchased Bewilderment
You see what is amazing is that we have this capacity, are predisposed to forming an entire story to explain that which is. Some stories are religious in nature, others while being secular are defended with the same veracity as those who are religious. Even beliefs about who we are, what we like and dislike, what our limitations are and should be. Our entire lives are lived out from mental constructs.
Snoopy mentions wonderment, curiosity and fear. Didn't Rumi once advise us to "Sell our cleverness and purchase bewilderment"?
SG points out that believing is a verb. Yes indeed and in that sense there is a purpose. After all I need to believe that the rules of physics exist before I commit to troubleshooting an electrical or mechanical problem in a machine. I need to believe that I can push my physical boundaries when I run or work out. But do we really need that tendency to form a story to insulate us from what is? Isn't it really just a psychological security blanket?
To reduce what we are talking about here to mere idolatry marginalizes the import of the behavior.
I have nothing personally against belief, or beliefs but there seems nothing in them that engages one in a relationship to actuality. No matter what ism, theory or philosophy one holds up as map and model of actuality, more than likely it is only another story.
And by holding these stories so dear so precious that we would kill rather than give them up, are we missing something vital?
So that being said, how would this kind of behavior serve us as a species?
Snoopy mentions wonderment, curiosity and fear. Didn't Rumi once advise us to "Sell our cleverness and purchase bewilderment"?
SG points out that believing is a verb. Yes indeed and in that sense there is a purpose. After all I need to believe that the rules of physics exist before I commit to troubleshooting an electrical or mechanical problem in a machine. I need to believe that I can push my physical boundaries when I run or work out. But do we really need that tendency to form a story to insulate us from what is? Isn't it really just a psychological security blanket?
To reduce what we are talking about here to mere idolatry marginalizes the import of the behavior.
I have nothing personally against belief, or beliefs but there seems nothing in them that engages one in a relationship to actuality. No matter what ism, theory or philosophy one holds up as map and model of actuality, more than likely it is only another story.
And by holding these stories so dear so precious that we would kill rather than give them up, are we missing something vital?
So that being said, how would this kind of behavior serve us as a species?