Belief, That Tricky Business

        A couple of years ago I began the process of organizing my own set of beliefs.  I will continue revising these beliefs for the remainder of my life.  If I could live up to these beliefs I would consider my life a success.  There may be weak spots, misconceptions and misinformation behind these beliefs.  I intend to keep working them over continually as new information prompts.  It is an unending process.

            One of the goals of “Belief, That Tricky Business” is that the reader develops his own ideas and sets them down on paper in a clear and consistent manner.  It is not productive for a person to live his/her life with just a hazy concept of what he/she believes.  It is better to be forthright and to act in a consistent manner with a set of defined beliefs.  In this information age that we live in it is not possible to set in stone a set of beliefs but it is reasonable to set them down in your computer and revise them as the days go by.  

            For me, at least, it seems to be an obvious and reasonable belief that all living things are members of an ongoing, developing Life Process that operates under the laws of nature and the physical universe.  The laws of nature include the survival of the most adaptable, propagation and perpetuation of the species and natural selection.  Beneath the veneer of civilization, these are the drives that generate basic behaviors such as the powerful bond of motherhood, family cohesiveness, nationalism, ethnocentrism and the multitude of organizations that promote the well being of its members.  Membership in this Life Process is easily discovered by the similarity of DNA characteristics among all plants and animals.  Also the similarity among groups of animals in the way they propagate, nurture their young and their behavioral characteristics is strong evidence for their common membership in the life process.

            Mankind, this past 30 plus million years has developed intelligence and consciousness to a high degree.  This development has given rise to the arts, religion, governmental organization and a multitude of advanced behaviors.  Most human societies have developed belief systems that have attempted to explain the origin of the Life Process and to guarantee the continuance of, at least , the intelligence/consciousness part of our existence.  The results of this seemingly natural tendency have been mixed, including the most beautiful and productive to the brutal and vicious.  That there is some truth in the various religious endeavors and paranormal experiences down through the centuries, seems reasonable.  We lack evidence of just exactly what that truth is.  While the major religions have developed sublime and attractive systems, they conflict in matters of detail and emphasis.  Perhaps someday mankind will develop to such an extent as to be able to grasp the truth of the Life Process.  For the present, for me at least, it seems reasonable to be an observer and participant in the Life Process and to support the productive efforts of every religion without committing my beliefs.    The origin of the Life Process is a difficult concept to deal with.  While is seems reasonable that there is a God or entity initiating the process,  objective evidence to support the contention is lacking.  If there were solid evidence of the truth of the Life Process, there would be a lot less trouble in the world.  Scientists are gaining knowledge of the actual mechanics of the beginnings of life but the initiating force is still a mystery.

            My Nature’s Way belief system has the following components: The exhortations are my stripped down review of the important aspects of this system.  They are called exhortations because they form the basis for decisions that make up daily life.  It would have been nice to have received them up on the mountain carved in stone, but alas this was not to be so.  They were developed over a period of time during the hustle bustle of daily living.

The Ten Exhortations

From Nature’s Way

1.   Let kindness and peacefulness be your guide.

2.   Seek beauty and truth wherever they may be found.  Seek beauty

for it is the zest of life; seek truth for it is the guideline to progress.

3.  Set family unity and strength as your goal.

4.  Actively support governmental and other institutions that bring order and flexibility to your life and that operate for the good of your family, city, state, country and world.

5.  Combine consistency, rationality and objective evidence in your search for truth.

  6.   Develop personal independence and ability and participate in important causes as either a leader or a worker.

  7.  Conduct your life's work, no matter how humble, in such a manner that promotes high values in society.

  8.  Use restraint and caring in your actions.

  9.  Participate, if reason permits, in the spiritual realm; it is a source of much beauty, truth, health and succor.

 10.   Let your life be full of fun and laughter.

                             ______

 My Present Belief

I believe in the efficacy of peacefulness, kindness, tolerance and the constant quest for beauty, truth and progress.

I believe we are all part of nature’s systems and are subject to its priorities and characteristics.

  I  believe in the possibility that there is a god, force or entity that  initiated the processes of living.   At present I can say nothing further about this possibility.

I believe that there is a built-in aspect in man’s makeup that causes him to seek the solutions to the problems of life and immortality through a higher, other worldly power.  It is this aspect that has given rise to the myriad of beliefs that have dotted history’s landscape.

I believe that within nature’s systems there is a built in process that propels us towards a better adaptation to life, the full extent of which we are just beginning to realize.

I hope that the great religions are correct and that there is a world beyond what we now know and that our individual entity will be included in that world.  In the absence of some convincing evidence of this other world’s existence, this concept must remain a hope.  At this point in the development of my own personal beliefs I have suspended the belief in the concept of god as defined by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  While I accept that those religions are full of important concepts that have helped in the development of the human being and successful societies, the inconsistencies and conflicting aspects of those religions have prompted me to search for the truth of a god or entity in other belief systems.  On the one hand these Western Religions define god as all powerful, all knowing and beneficent, but what has happened throughout history is a hodgepodge of cruelty, violence, starvation and pestilence.  The inconsistency of the beliefs with what actually has happened and continues to happen has plagued western religions for centuries. 

           I call my philosophy of life “Nature’s Way”.  It is a philosophy that recognizes the evolutionary, biological nature of man and all living things.  Whatever else we are, basically we are creatures of nature’s system and are subject to its priorities and characteristics. The important concepts embodied in this philosophy are that all ideas and beliefs, old and new, must be subject to an ongoing examination for their consistency, reasonableness, historical perspective and verifiable evidence before they can be fully incorporated into the core beliefs of Nature’s Way.   Ideas and beliefs that don’t satisfy these criteria are not necessarily discarded but rather become part of the ongoing body of beliefs and ideas that may contribute in some way to the core beliefs in Nature’s Way.  Some ideas and beliefs are not, by their nature, capable of being examined for their verifiability.  Morality, beauty and other highly subjective studies are among those that don’t lend themselves easily to scientific examination.  The result of subjecting ideas and beliefs to these criteria is that few become full fledged items in Nature’s Way.  It is critically important to have a continuing examination of ideas and beliefs and the consideration of the usefulness of those ideas and beliefs as they apply to the process of living.  The great Western Religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, in my view do not meet the criteria for consistency and reasonableness and are in conflict with the core belief of Nature’s Way that man’s nature is evolutionary and biological along with all living things.  However, those religions in many ways, have sparked some of the progress that man has achieved throughout these past couple centuries.

           I suspect that all people have a criterion for believing what they believe.  They may not have this criterion written down or have even given it much consideration but the variation of beliefs between religious groups and within religious groups indicates a wide variety of beliefs. For my purposes I have delineated these levels of beliefs so as to have a clear picture of the differing items and where they fit in the overall scheme of acceptance in my Nature’s Way philosophy.  These levels are as follows:

Category One - Scientifically verifiable or reasonable with historical   consistency.  In our modern world of ever increasing research, knowledge and communication it is pretty difficult to unequivocally state that a certain idea or field of knowledge is completely true.

Beliefs in this category need to be consistent, credible and have some convincing evidence.  Certainly there will be a wide variance in what each person considers worthy of this category. Category One forms the core for my Nature’s Way philosophy:

   Present core beliefs of Nature's Way

            Laws of physics

            Evolutionary nature of all living organisms

Category Two  - This is the category in which most ideas, phenomena and

knowledge belongs.  The major religions no doubt have aspects that belong in the first category but, in total, there is too great a lack of consistency and credible evidence to fit into that category.  Research in the sciences are replicated time and time again in an effort to nail down the truth of a certain proposition.  Some of this research will finally fit into Category One.  Most subjective research and anecdotal commentary on observed phenomena will probably remain in the second category.  One advantage of having this category is that a person doesn’t have to make the decision of rejecting certain knowledge but can place that knowledge in this category for further inspection;

 Category Two concepts

         Religious doctrine, miracles, pronouncements.   Social theories, programs, trends. astrology

          Psychology and parapsychology

          All unexplained phenomena

         Medical research still in the process

Category Three -  Improbable - If an idea lacks credible evidence, is inconsistent with the world as we know it, and does not fit into the historical aspects of human experience, it is probably safe to reject this idea as being improbable

           The hope with these categories is that we don’t get gulled into

believing ideas that obstruct progress or are out and out dangerous to mental stability and the safety of those around us.

            Is there solace, hope and comfort in this Nature’s Way Philosophy?

Within evolution’s processes and rules there are examples of heart warming beauty and seeming morality.  Watching the mothers within the animal kingdom care for their young or an animal that risks its life to save another is something to behold.  A recent article in the paper describing a dangerous building fire identified a mother cat as the hero of the event.  The cat entered the fire engulfed building three times to bring out her litter.  Her face was all burned and she was in bad shape but she got her litter out.  It is enough to make you wonder.  But I don’t think  we can look to the evolutionary process for any kind of lead in terms of morality or philosophical truth.  The evolutionary process is focused on the preservation and adaptation of life and is often violent and disgusting in the process.  While we must deal with evolution as the central core of our existence, we must look elsewhere for morality, values and truths that are beyond the scope of our physical existence.  Perhaps the evolutionary drive for the ubiquitous adaptation to life is a reason for considering the possibility that herein lies the purposes and truths of our existence. Perhaps the answer to our quest for meaning in life is to accentuate the positive and the beautiful in nature and accept as a necessity the brutal and ugly parts of nature.  Putting a value judgment on the negative aspects of nature may just be a hang up stemming from a superficial concept of what life is all about.  Meaning and truth are tough nuts to crack but somewhere down the road it may all become obvious.

            Are there any promises of immortality?  Certainly Nature’s Way leaves in limbo some of the most important questions a person may ask about life.  The  question of immortality is not promised as in Christianity and Islam if you conduct your life in a certain manner and believe certain critical concepts.  However, my Nature’s Way Philosophy does not discount the possibility of immortality, only the manner in which it is promised in these great religions.  Three thousand years of history have failed to provide convincing evidence of life after death.  I’m sure there are millions and millions of people out there that will not agree with that statement and that is OK with me.  I can have the same hopes as everyone else but before that concept becomes part of my core belief, I will need some convincing evidence.