SAM: Think of it this way, you’ll go to Heaven.
ODA MAE BROWN: I don’t want to go to Heaven. I want to go to
the bank and cash a GODDAMN CHECK!
—Ghost, 1990, Jerry Zucker.
BLOGGING can seriously
harm your health.
A week ago I got a new follower on my twitter…
Powerful advisor to recent U.S.
All matters of personal and career excellence.
…and suspiciously (or not so) it
disappeared several days later.
Do I believe in psychics? For one, I say No. Yet the
ad made me ponder, aside from wondering which actions might have been commanded
from a psychic on behalf of a US
Let’s have a look at some shocking statistics[2]:
82% believe in God
76%
believe in Miracles
75%
believe in Heaven
73%
believe in Jesus is God or the Son of God
72%
believe in Angels
71%
believe in Survival of the soul after death
70%
believe in The resurrection of Jesus Christ
61%
believe in Hell
61%
believe in The virgin birth of Jesus
60%
believe in The devil
45%
believe in Darwin
42%
believe in Ghosts
40%
believe in Creationism
32%
believe in UFOs
26%
believe in Astrology
23%
believe in Witches
20%
believe in Reincarnation
I’m saying shocking because Americans believe more in
the paranormal than Darwin
The nub of the issue lies on the difference of what I
want to believe based on emotions/needs and what I should believe based on solid
evidences. For instance, if you can’t bear your loneliness and a
psychic assures you that you are going to meet a tall dark stranger next week,
you want to believe that charlatan. If you are diagnosed with a mortal disease,
you want to believe in God to soften the pain of mortality through some vision
of everlasting life and, although atheist, you might start praying to God, the son of God, the Holy
Spirit, and the Holy Mother of God! And I wonder: Where are the solid
evidences? The emotions—basically, fear to the unknown—will swept us not to
wonder, just to believe. We will smooth the path and walk through it finding
the most convenient and useful explanation.
Under the calm waters, I wonder how in the Age of
Science, we, humans, are not prone to search for answers[3] that
come with evidences (or that will come most likely in the future). It’s
understandable, nevertheless, that throughout the centuries the fear-stricken
primitive minds believed in deities and superstitions. But in the 21st century?!
Most likely the issue has to do with the education,
cultural and social environment, and ultimately the level of personal awareness,
which will drive us to either look for the answers or to make ourselves
comfortable in what’s given to us[4]—even
with the peril of absorbing mistaken paradigms. Lots of layabouts make a
fortune trying to relief that fear temporarily. We call them psychics,
spiritualists, mediators of God, or other cunning people.[5]
Over the years, I switched jackets from believer to
skeptic, realizing that as far as we know something, we drop believing in it.
We don’t need to believe in the truth. We know the truth.
[1] Come on! Don’t tell me the Malibu
[2] Opinion poll of 2,303 adult Americans. “Harris Poll
reveals what people do and do not believe,” Harris, 2009.
[3] Yes, there are still many unresolved questions, as for
instance, in Kant’s words “The starry heavens above and the moral law within.”
[4] Nobody taught us how science works but what science
has discovered. I guess it has to do with the parrot-like teaching method.
Sigh.
[5] I have read that Joan of Arc was declared to
be a witch and burned alive by a pope, and three hundred years later, she would
be declared to be a saint by another pope. There’s one solid evidence here:
FEAR (to lose clientele).
Copyright © 2011 by THE PYTHAGOREAN STORYTELLER. All rights reserved.
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