IN SEARCH OF AN ALTERNATIVE

There are some, I am sure, who will choose to continue believing what they have always believed, regardless of the opinions expressed here, but this is not an issue. It is precisely because we don’t know for a fact what is true, that we construct religious belief systems around opinions.

Some of these opinions are quite well-reasoned, enough to create the possibility of belief (a theory of belief, if you will) and can easily be applied to both camps (believers vs non-believers), and can be used to support either position—which further demonstrates the inconsistencies in things attributed to god.

This is my way of saying there is nothing to argue about. You are probably both right. All you have to do is spend an afternoon trying to understand the behavior of “quarks” to know that this universe is even more amazing than we could ever have believed. Quarks (the building blocks of life) literally alter the physics of life.

The Last Word on the Inflluence of Religion on the Meaning of Life

The only topic left to talk about with regard to the role of religion is this: Do we need god in order to explain the meaning of life? Not do we need to exclude god, but do we need to include him? Remember, we only introduced the subject of god because the claim is made in almost every faith on the planet that you don’t have to die if you know and follow the required ritual.

Yet there is still another possible explanation why we can put god in one box, and the world in another, and still talk meaningfully about the meaning of life. Consider the artist who creates a work of art. Once the work of art is complete, do I need anything more from it’s creator? How about a novel, or a poem. Once written, do we still need an author? Does music still need a composer? A computer need an engineer? Or any other technological gizmo?

The answer is a resounding no! Even the black widow understands this on a biological level. Once created, the creator is a short-lived non-essential presence. No wonder he is never around once he creates the miracles. So in the final analysis, we will let the churches and philosophers oversee the religious aspects of life, and the rest of us will continue the search for the meaning on life, rather than the meaning of religion.

Next week, we take a side excursion in which we attempt to demonstrate that we do not exist. If we do not exist, then there is no meaning of life. If we do exist, then we have the first hint of proof that life has meaning. This may not be the most efficient way to solve the riddle (we would need a great deal more than one instance), but it does satisfy our requirement to lighten up on occasion by spinning a tall tale.

Copyright © by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

IN SEARCH OF GOD

We have pretty much exhausted this avenue of consideration for the meaning of life, for how can an inconsistent god provide direction on what is expected of us? If a loving god is still in the picture, then perhaps it is also a god who is not all powerful, for a loving god would not set up the earth to be a place where fear of death is constant and omnipresent. I will ignore the long list of inconsistencies because I am sure you are familiar with them, from incest to murder.

To say that god works in mysterious ways is to say nothing meaningful. There is nothing mysterious about creating a place of death, sacrificing your own son to die in that place, and threatening to destroy the planet if we don’t figure out what he wants from us. Furthermore, god can only act in mysterious ways if he exists, and I am at a loss to prove it either way.

Additionally, if you consider what he is selling and what we are buying, it is nothing short of loss of autonomy for you and me. If I do what god (or his highly placed priests) want from me, the price is my eternal, unquestioning obedience and my continual singing of his praises (starting now!). The word for that is “slavery.” On the other hand, I could have as many as 100 years of total freedom, before I am punished for exercising free will. If this is the only choice, why would I choose immediate incarciration?

My god would be a loving god

Most Christians don’t feel they need to prove this step because the only unforgivable sin in Christianity is disbelief. No matter how the proof comes out, there is only one answer. My bias says to that bias, how can you be sure you haven’t backed the wrong god? (Remember, as discussed earlier, at the same time and place that Jesus was vying for the title of messiah, there were more than 200 other “messiahs” laying claim to the throne.)

A true believer would perhaps also be concerned that they have not inadvertently selected the devil to worship because they didn’t make the effort to verify this god that claims to be the one, true god.

My god would be a tolerant god

An extension of a loving god, called out separately because I cannot believe that any god worth his salt would be so petty that he tortures his creations for an eternity for failing to measure up. Mistakes are bound to happen, particularly with so much in the way of imperfection in the world. I believe that if there is a god, he forgives mistakes much more readily than man forgives, and seeks no revenge, but teaches non-violence in its place. If we prefer the violence we can easily find it everywhere on earth.

My god would be nothing like man

My god would be a force for positive unification of the power that is the universe, that has no anthropomorphic resemblance to man. A life force that I would liken to Carl Jung’s collective unconscious, or Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendental oversoul, or even Stephen Spielberg’s the force. Or perhaps all three, and still more, which serve to remind us that one man is a pathetic wretch, but six billion, properly educated, are a formidable force in the universe.

FINDING MEANING WITHOUT GOD

It is clear that we are going in circles. Whatever god is, he is not our guardian in any sense of the word, and there is nothing we can do for him that he cannot do for himself. The traditional way of painting him makes him the Dictator, the King, the Emperor, the Warrior, or any other dictatorial figure in our history. What we need is a President, a Prime Minister, or any other open-minded individual who is also truly interested in his fellow man.

We need to act on facts, not on fictions. So unless one of you out there steps into my life and says he thinks differently, I think it is time to write-off the silver-tongued individuals who wish to manipulate and control us. Even if we are wrong, creating a life where we are taking care of each other for 80 or more years is much more important than singing the praises of a tyrant for an eternity. And if I am wrong, then this is not the place I want to be, anyway. Next week we look at alternative meanings.

Copyright © by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

IN SEARCH OF FACTS

We now have the minimum tool set required to sift through clues in search of facts.

• We begin by asking the inevitable questions,
• We compile a list of things known through opinions and interpretations,
• but which cannot be proven,
• We derive a second list, this time of facts which can be proven,
• The second list is shown to be true, and right under our noses for thousands of years with the questions of the first list, with little or no change.

For the sake of completeness, we should note that we previously introduced a two-part theory which states that we cannot understand the meaning of life without understanding the meaning of death and vice versa. We may or may not try to prove this theory later, but it feels important, so it has been labeled and filed for future use.

For contrast, lets identify an initial list of facts.

• All living things eat, and are eaten by, other living things.
• All living things kill other living things.
• All living things die, from the perspective that physically we are gone from this world (regardless of where we might or might not have gone).
• All animal species known to man have members that are gay.
• All animals and plant life are evolving,
• These changes occur rapidly, and have been observed for many years.
• All living entities experience pain and illness,
• Yes, even plants feel pain, experience fear, and have memories (NOT opinion, FACT!)

Every statement on this list is a fact  because we can prove that every statement on this list is true. Now let me give you an opinion that illustrates why we might want to include them in our search for meaning: there is an inconsistency between what these statements say and the existence of an all-knowing, all powerful and loving god who watches out for us. I do not think it would add anything to the discussion to labor over these statements ad nauseum. For me, and by now for you, they should come under the category of intuitively obvious.

If it seems unfair to bind you by these rules, let me say that you also may personalize this list with some true statements of your own.

• If you say, I believe in god, then we take this as fact. It’s a fact that you believe in god.
• You can even believe in the inconsistent god of the Bible.
• But, if you say, there is a god (my book says so), then we take this as opinion, and we respect your choices, for afterall we cannot prove you wrong.

More to come next time.

Copyright  © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

IN SEARCH OF CLUES

The first action we will take is to explore how far we can get looking only at opinions. We will attempt to define the boundaries of what would be an acceptable answer. This may seem like stuffing the ballot box to ensure that the answer matches our own bias, but the issues are so large when looking at belief systems that we could grow into old age before we begin to appreciate the complexities of the task.

The first boundary that we can probably agree on is that opinions provide clues, but they fail to provide certainty. This is why I gave you a very complete (perhaps too complete) picture of my own personal biases (i.e., it is difficult to know what influences what in this complex environment). Furthermore, clues provide theories to be tested in the field, so to speak.

Second, but of some importance, to ask “what is the Meaning of Life?” presupposes that we live our lives for a purpose. I will assume that most would agree, since the most common “reason” for being here includes getting closure or finishing something. But so far, we are only talking about process, and to really understand we need to talk more about substance.

We could start by asking:

• What are we supposed to finish?
• Is this task specific to each individual, i.e., is it different for each of us?
• Or is this a group task, whereby we are supposed to work together?
• How would we figure out what we are supposed to be doing?
• Why don’t we already know the answers to these types of questions?
• Or are we born with the answers hard-wired into our brains?
• What would this suggest about the nature of free-will?
• And many other such statements …

Perhaps the first thing we notice about these statements is that they are inspecific. In fact they are high level, broadly based and infused with popular opinions. And that is the key to these kinds of questions, they are about opinions. It’s the method we have been using for centuries to understand our world, but we have gotten no where for the diversion.

None-the-less, as stated above, opinions are useful in providing clues to understanding. For now, lets begin the analysis of some of this data with the statements: “Why are we here? What are we supposed to finish?” We have already noted that this question is too broad to be meaningful, and perhaps too vague to prove, so lets start by forming some additional, plausible theories, using the statement list:

• [Theory 2a] Maybe god works through man to achieve his goals. Maybe we are some kind of caretaker for the planet, a stand in for god who is busy in other parts of the universe creating more worlds where new life forms can thrive.
• [Theory 2b] Maybe that was the mission that god gave to Adam and Eve, the job of first caretakers, starting with the Garden of Eden—until god fired them for eating the fruit “from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
• According to the scriptures, when Adam was asked why he ate the fruit he basically said, the woman made me do it. On hearing this, god makes every woman on earth a second class citizen, to suffer pain in child bearing, and to be subjugated and kept in their place by men.
• Yet god is not convinced that the problem is handled, and he banishes both Adam and Eve from the garden before Eve can tempt Adam to taste the fruits of the Tree of [Eternal] life.

This scenario, while contrived by us, would explain why god is suddenly an absentee landlord, and what he thought was required to keep us in line until he got back. It would explain the appearance of not caring. Maybe, just before god left, he really did say that he would annihilate us when he returned, if we didn’t get it right. As usual, however, there is no evidence that this scenario is true, but it does provide some theories that can be further examined.

This approach of trying to explain away man’s biased views of his personal god, of his own design, out of his own personal needs, without proof leads to disbelief. The problem with this approach is that we have to suppose an awful lot to get to a plausible, satisfying explanation. And the facts do not support the case, except in a superficial way. For example, we could be caretakers. The message can be found in the Bible that we are to take care of each other, and other forms of life.

But do we really believe that god so despised half of the human race, that he subjugated them to pain and slavery for the rest of time for wanting to understand the difference between right and wrong?

This post will end with a quick summary:

1. It would be pushing it to say that god left on a mission, and man stayed behind on a mission, without an exchange of a single word of instruction.
2. We can’t seem to go down any path for very long before we are confronted with an inconsistent, angry, punitive, bully that people call god.
3. I don’t know whether or not god is reality, but I truly believe that this god, the one that hates women, would be an insult to any real god.
4. Finally, even when we fabricate the answer to the what-if, we still have no facts to base it on.

By the way, if you missed the 1st comment at the end of this section, where Terry Sissons talks about catastrophic events that have influenced man’s thinking on the nature of god, please do take a look.

More to come next time.

Copyright © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

I received two questions over the week-end, apparently causing the readers some confusion. The questions were submitted as follows:

• “What is Yahate?”-  Yahate is a family surname, used by the Ojibwa Indian tribes. The Ojibwa are called Chippewa in the United States (but Ojibwa prefer the traditional name for their people).
• “What [is] the meaning … of facts and opinions?” – A simplistic method of categorizing what can be known and what cannot be known. If we can prove a statement to be either true or false, we say it is a fact. If we cannot prove a statement true or false, we say you are giving your opinion. For example, if you say you believe in god, that’s a true statement, and therefore a fact (unless you lied). But if you say there is a god, that’s a subject of much speculation. It is not a fact, but an opinion. However, an opinion does not prove that god doesn’t exist, only that there isn’t enough information to prove one way or the other. (Which is why I am an agnostic, not an atheist.)

I was also asked about the meaning of tall tales.

• A tall tale is a story that exaggerates a truth into a lie to make a point. If we go that far in the series, we will will identify when we are on shaky ground (to keep the academies happy). The reason for adding it is that we often take ourselves too seriously, and we miss the point: life above all else was meant to be lived. Otherwise, why bother going through the pain of birth, child hood, and 40 years of a career we didn’t choose, before we finally get to do what we want, only to find out that we are dying, which shouldn’t be a surprise because that’s the next step in the grand scheme of things? In case you are wondering, yes, I just told you a tall tale.

Copyright © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

METHODS OF INQUIRY REVISITED

Most of us, at one time or another, expend a fair amount of energy in wishful thinking regarding something we want, or something we want to do. It turns out that the more energy we put into the thing we want (i.e., the more we invest of ourselves, and our egos) the more we tend to believe that we are entitled to it. There is something about pursuing a goal that the longer you pursue it, the more you think you should achieve it.

So where am I going with this? Let me suggest the following: religion is not trivial; most people have expended a lot of time thinking about what they believe. Many are still asking the questions, i.e., have made a huge and continuing investment in the decision. And most have arrived at an answer based on emotion, often fear, and irrespective of the facts.

On the other hand, we often agonize over these decisions for no justifiable reason. Nothing is permanent (fact), and all paths lead to the same place (opinion), which in English goes by the name of Death. Through Death, we either find the missing piece of the puzzle (i.e., through some form of life after death), or we find that life has no meaning (at the instant of death). No amount of wishful thinking will change this.

As much as we possibly can, we will construct fact-based arguments, which (ideally) are proven to be true. Remember what we said earlier:

1. A fact is a data point that can be proven true or false.
2. An opinion is a data point that cannot be proven true or false.

There are many types of opinion. I have already mentioned that an opinion in the scientific world is often called a theory. Wishful thinking is an opinion-driven argument. Speculation is the expression of an opinion. We can have an informed opinion, or a misinformed opinion. Regardless of what we call it, it’s still an opinion, unless proven otherwise. Therefore (in my opinion) The Meaning of Life, when taken in its totality, weighs in as an opinion unless we prove otherwise.

Intuition (and a certain amount of stubbornness) tells me that we might be able to prove pieces of the great cosmic puzzle. You might see this as an inconsistency, for only a few posts back I pointed out that we were missing part of the definition: The Meaning of Death. Taken in its totality we had to consider both sides of the coin.

But if we can find a smaller “piece,” taken in its totality, we have a better chance of proving that smaller piece. And if we find enough smaller pieces that are facts on their own, we might be able to discover some new truths, through combining some older ideas.

Copyrite © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

THE AUTHOR DISCLOSES HIS BIAS

If I talk about God as though he exists, it isn’t because I have proven (or disproven) his existence, nor does it mean that I accept any of the commonly held views of God. It’s because I don’t have enough information that I am comfortable in either camp. I none-the-less reject that the Earth is evil, that God is inconsistent or that God discriminates. I reject the inconsistencies in the Bible, eternal damnation, torture, favoritism, claims of being chosen (for anything) over others or their beliefs, mass murder by any name (e.g., the Rapture / the Apocalypse ) or any other fear-based approach to proselytizing unquestioning believers.

All roads lead to death, whether we are gone forever, reincarnated from time-to-time, off to another universe or chosen for any variation on this theme. I do not believe that any of the paths we take were meant to discriminate against anyone, to treat others as inferior, or to define who will be turned away—using religion, race, sex, or any other god-given-attribute during creation, whether or not his method of creation involved evolution, rebirth or rubbing two match sticks together. Nobody has the definitive truth, and if we have even a snails chance of learning the truth, it won’t likely happen before we die.

Why An Agnostic?  Why Not A Believer With an Explanation?

“God may not play dice with the universe, but he seemingly does so with the lives of its inhabitants; either that, or he has no interest in outcomes.” It was Albert Einstein who said, “I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.” [Einstein, His Life and Times, 1947] It was I who added the observation that god doesn’t appear to care one way or the other. A believer would say, “God works in mysterious ways,” and ask no further questions. An atheist would say, “the whole universe operates on mathematical probabilities” and think he answered the question. An agnostic never stops asking the question.

We are taught by religious leaders that god is love. This makes more sense than many of the alternatives. If true, then god asks nothing from me, not even belief in his existence. My creation was a gift not unlike the gift of life that I participated in when my children were born. I understand this god. This is the god that expects me to take ownership of my life and for my mistakes. I reject the god that put us on earth to live our lives in constant fear of his wrath. The god that works in mysterious ways. There is nothing mysterious about getting the razor strap off the top shelf and showing us who is boss. This isn’t my god; this is the god of our forefathers, the god who makes us winners and everybody else losers.

If god exists, and if god created everything, then god forgives our mistakes because to do otherwise would make us god’s mistake. I reject the notion that god creates weaklings so he can punish them for an eternity for their mistakes (or for failing to beg for forgiveness). I reject most interpretations that present god as judge or warrior spewing fire and damnation. If god made me in his image, then it makes even less sense to torture me for my mistakes.

If we are all sinners, and god punishes us for doing what is in our nature, then god has created a perverse universe. This would be the god we curse when we lose our temper and expose our short comings, for he created us with our imperfections. But I do not believe this is anymore than a false god. I do not exclude the notion that we have some responsibility for our actions. For whatever reason, we have been given the awesome responsibility of choice. We must be expected to use it. And we will make mistakes, and we will get up, dust ourselves off and try again.

But the hardest idea to accept in this discussion is that nobody, not even god, waits 2,000 years to punish a child. If you truly believe in god, then forget the rapture. There will be no Judgement Day. God doesn’t need revenge. (Did Jesus seek revenge?) It is man who seems to need revenge. Neither does god take sides. It is man who takes sides. It is man who wrote the Bible and man who interprets the Bible (or its equivalent) to prove that he is on the right side. And it is man who picks his version of God based on his current needs, and who doesn’t recognize that his choices are inconsistent with a single god, a god of love.

If I still haven’t made clear why I am an agnostic, let me say this: it’s as much to associate more with those who are still looking (agnostics), and less with those who gave up years ago (believers and non-believers). “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves” [The True Believer; thoughts on the nature of mass movements, Eric Hoffer, © 1951, reprint 2002] I do insist, however, that before I accept the one true god, somebody must prove that I am not being seduced by a cheap imitation.

A final note before closing out this week’s installment: I recently read an excellent new book [Jesus Interrupted; revealing the hidden contradictions in the bible (and why we don't know about them), Bart D Ehrman, 2009]. The author is a well-qualified expert in bible studies and expresses his findings with the care and sensitivity you would expect from a man of his experience. I think everyone over the age of 21 should read this book and listen to his story. Whether or not you are believer, agnostic or even atheist, it’s a good read, well worth your time.

Copyright © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

THE ROLE OF RELIGION

At first, I thought we could avoid the issue of religion with regard to the meaning of life, and I hoped we could simplify our approach in so doing. But religion is clearly at the center of this question because religious leaders have altered the original meaning of life by removing the sting of death. We will begin our examination of the role of religion by discussing the three traditional relationships man is said to have with God. These relationships are believer, agnostic, and atheist.

Believers

Most believers in the United States are faith-based, which is to say that they believe in God because the Bible says he exists. In Christianity, disbelief is the only unforgivable sin. I would speculate that the reason for this stipulation is that it shuts off arguments that cannot be proved. The problem with blind acceptance is that you may have backed the wrong God. In the time period that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah, more than 200 other would-be “Messiah’s” were traveling around the Middle East in an effort to fulfill the prophesy.

Agnostics

Because neither the existence of God nor the absence of God can be proved with any degree of certainty, some of us—the author included—take a wait and see approach. From the data available, the question of the existence of God remains a question. But with or without proof, I believe with absolute certainty, at the same level of conviction that we find in the faith-based believer, that a “fair and just God” does not hide from his creations for more than 2,000 years, only to come out of hiding to bring down the apocalypse. And then what? Rewind and do it again?

Atheists

The atheist is satisfied that if he cannot prove God’s existence, then God does not exist. He ignores the fact that he cannot disprove God’s existence, so at best we have a stalemate.

CHOOSING YOUR RELATIONSHIP

It is not my intent to convert anyone to a different category than you have already chosen. It is my intent to get you to know why you made the choice you did. I recommend that you avoid pat answers, that you understand what you believe and why you believe it when you profess it. Until we have better answers, to do otherwise is a crap shoot.

Copyright © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

THE AUTHOR EXPLORES AN ALTERNATIVE MEANING

While I was working on an opening statement to share my thoughts on the meaning of life, I suddenly had one of those eureka experiences that change our thinking. It began with an assumption that the only way I can know the meaning of life is to understand its opposite, the meaning of death. My life (my existence in the universe) defines a system, and one cannot study part of a system and expect to get the whole answer. But that is exactly what we do when we only ask part of the question.

So how do we justify excluding death? The Neanderthals are believed to be the first race on earth to bury their dead in a ritualistic ceremony, beginning about 50,000 years ago. Their graves were not a final resting place, however, for they were given the tools required to keep doing what they did in life. The practice of ritualistic burial quickly caught the attention of almost every religion from primitive times to the present day, and they went one better. They formalized the concept of life after death.

If it were the case that we are able to live forever, to talk about the meaning of death would itself be meaningless, i.e., if there is no death, then our language would have no word for death, and there would be no concept of death in our culture. But death is part of every life form known to man, so presumably God must intervene to make man the exception, the only animal that has a means to escape death. This is what religion does. It removes the side that grapples with the meaning of death by promising that believers will never die.

By removal of death from the meaning of life, we distort the outcome. If I were able to live forever, to talk about the meaning of life becomes less urgent, less meaningful in fact, and therefore less relevant). What gives life meaning is the urgency of death. We will categorize the complete answer as a theory, which is the scientific way of saying an opinion. The significance of this will be discussed later. For now, we capture the theory that life has no meaning without death [Theory 1a] and death has no meaning without life [Theory 1b].

And we make the following observation: the idea that I might live beyond my death exaggerates my importance in the universe. Man is the only species that studies itself. It is difficult for man to be objective in this role. It has only been a few hundred years that we have understood this. But we have had nearly 50,000 years to convince ourselves that we really are that important.

Copyright © 2009 by Tad Laury Graham

“The Meaning of Life and Other Tall Tales”

THE MOST COMMON ANSWERS

Probably the answer most often given in response to the question, What is the Meaning of Life? is that we are here to complete something, and this “something” has the status of what we might call our mission in life. The task itself might be simple, but the achievement is apparently important in the grand scheme of things.

Another fairly common answer is that we are here to learn something, although for me it is difficult to understand what I might learn in a physical plane (which we occupy for a few short years) that also applies to a spiritual plane (which we occupy for an eternity). The other concern I have is the school that teaches this lesson is Hard Knocks. Hard Knocks often distort the lesson plans to fit the neurosis of the moment.

For many of us, our interest in asking the question centers around the idea of getting clarity regarding our mission, whether it’s a task to be performed or a lesson to be learned. For the religious minded, how they recognize their mission from all of the other choices is not of great concern because it is believed that sooner or later the answer pops into mind and the riddle is immediately understood. They say they are called to service. And this revelation is the means to be called.

Still another common answer is that we are here to give meaning to life. Life wouldn’t mean anything if it didn’t include a witness, perhaps. I have even heard it said that we create reality through our actions, which define the meaning. Either way seems like an invitation to chaos: too many visionaries and not enough work horses.

Are there any other answers given? Have I left any out? If I am leaving anything out, or missing the point, please feel free to identify my shortcomings in the comments section of this post. I pretty much don’t have all the answers, so I enjoy hearing from people who have figured out a piece of the puzzle.