Concepts, Language, and Semantics

Part of learning anything is learning the language that corrals thoughts and concepts in the sponge that is the brain.  What are these words?  What do they really mean ?  Why do people use them in that way ?

I suspect that much of this learning comes from context.  As as person grows up with a language they pick up the meaning from their environment; from the people around them and from how those people use words.

I've just picked up a nuance that has changed my perspective on a couple of words in an interesting way.  I guess that is learning.  Perhaps if it is useful I will continue to call it such.

So what is this transformation, this epiphany, (one of my favorite words!) you ask?

So first for the history.  I used to treat the words fact, belief, and faith as an ordered set of qualifiers on important stuff in the world around us.

1. Facts were great - they always had near-perfect truth value.  Facts rock! 
2. Beliefs were what people used when they couldn't find the facts. They were nearly as good.  The only problem with beliefs that they only became nearly as good as Facts with vigorous debate and defense.  Sort of like Facts that required maintenance.
3. Faith I viewed as a distant third in my hierarchy - something that people adopted if they were too far from the facts, or too lazy, to establish and defend a Belief.

Hey  - a pretty good taxonomy if I do say so myself.  So what's wrong?

Thanks to some reading (a book called "The Enoch Factor") and some pondering, I've re-ordered my taxonomy (or at least I think I have, I've gotta see how this works in the long run).  My new ordered taxonomy is:

1. Facts (they still rock).  I like basing my world on things that are true.
2. Faith (pulling ahead to number 2 from the distant 3rd place).  The rationale is as follows.  Faith represents candidate facts that don't need defense.  Items of faith don't need vigorous defense to be taken and used as true.  They are not really subject to healthy debate because they are not altered by that debate.  They also pass the critical test of utility (otherwise they are indicators of insanity) - they make life better for those that hold them.  Good examples: I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, or I have faith that humans are warming the earth.
3. Belief in my mind has fallen to the not so distant third.  The definition has not changed in my mind, but the value and utility has.  At the very least a belief is decreased in value by the effort required to maintain it.

And why does it matter? For one thing I think I have become a better listener and capable of a better understanding when people profess a faith in God.  This Faith is a good thing, and in fact a better thing than a Belief in God because it by definition requires no defense.  It is useful without waste or noise.  It also matters because I can make an important distinction between the search for Faith, and the search for Belief.  I no longer feel as strong a need to try and resolve the inconsistencies and incongruities in the defense of specific Beliefs, either of the Christian religion, or in specifics of people's definition of God.  I will not strive to build (and defend) beliefs.  I will seek Faith.

In closing I'll note that I seem to have used this semantic exercise to send myself chasing a different wild goose.  Seems a little silly on the face of it.  It also seems like a better goose to chase: easier to find, and more valuable if I find it.  

Looking for the Car Keys

Sometimes my journey is a little frustrating. I'd equate it to that kids game where you search for something while your friends call warmer, colder, etc. until you find the object that you are looking for. Sort of. in this case (a heathen looking for a Christian God), the warmer and colder signals are really really subtle (either that or I am not very sensitive). I'm casting about, but I have a hard time telling the difference between closer and farther away from my objective. And when I feel close (for example singing the Lord's Prayer in Church today) I can't tell what direction I'm facing, or where I'm going, so continuing the search in the same direction is difficult.

Possibly another metaphor would describe my plight. I'm looking for my car keys. I'm frustrated because I can't find them, and have been searching for a while. I'm not sure where to look, can't recall where I've already covered, and I'm feeling a little dumb. Perhaps the analogy has a deficiency. In this case, having never found "car keys" before, I don't even know what they look like. I won't even know when I've succeeded.

Oh well - on with the search.

Assume...

There is an old joke (at least as old as I am) that may inform my journey (or at  least my rate of travel). Aside - perhaps the best news is that the slower you travel the more you see.


Anyway, the joke (un-embellished short form) goes like this...There once was a farmer named Phillip that was having trouble with the production of milk on his farm.  Being particularly partial to P's he invited a Physiologist, a Psychologist, and a Physicist to assist in finding and fixing this unknown problem.  First to be called, the Physiologist recommended a comprehensive set of changes to diet, exercise, and sleep patterns, that, when followed exactingly for weeks by Pharmer Phillip, demonstrated no improvement in milk production whatsoever. The Psychologist was called in next, and prescribed a series of deeply thought-out changes, including interactive bovine dialog, music coordinated with time of day and lighting, and some carefully measured pharmaceuticals. After much time, effort, and money (talking with cows isn't easy), and absolutely no results, Pharmer Phillip finally elects in desperation to call in the Physicist.  On arrival, and after a brief introduction to cows, the Physicist leans on the fence, and says:

 "Vell, lets see here...  First let us assume ze cow is a sphere"

This says two things to me.  The first is that I must be a little odd to hang onto this as a favorite joke since my days in colllege physics.  The second is that alternate perspectives at least exist for people in physics, although their value is still in dispute if the joke above has any foundation in reality.

So lets get back to the sphere.  My research into Abrahamic faiths points to the assertion by some that there is one God, and that the one God is the foundation of all three faiths.  Assuming that this is true, then how does the model extend to other faiths?  Although my learning is just beginning, it does appear that...

1. God's complexity is higher than man can grasp
2. People assert a personal God, one that relates to them, 
3. Many monotheistic faiths assert that God as described by them is the one true God.

All of these conditions coexist if we realize that it may be everybody's understanding of God that is both different and incomplete.  That  means that yours is wrong, BUT SO IS MINE.

So what's to be done?  The answer to this question also feels clear, at least to this uneducated heathen.  We should...

1. Study other faiths
2. Seek to uncover and ratify the common elements of all faiths
3. accept the fact that there can be both multiple human explanations of anything (presumably including God) that are both true and different.

So back to the sphere.  Perhaps we should start with 

"Vell, let us see here...  Let us start by assuming that God is a Sphere..."

but that we all see only one side, and that we all see things differently.

Or perhaps we should just admit that we are all wise but blind humans (men?), and that God is an elephant :-)

Not that an answer does ME (still a heathen) any good, but...

What does one do in heaven?  If all things are perfect, what changes are needed?  If no changes are needed, what do souls do with all the time on their hands (eternity being a long time and all that)?  What is there for a type A personality to obsess over?  Are there any good projects to work on ?

Serve the Lord - a Heathen perspective

Serve the Lord.  It makes sense, even to a heathen like myself, to serve those that are our superiors.  I can understand this.  It's pretty human to recognize power, and, if one so chooses, to serve power.

But when I say that it makes sense, making sense may mean something different to a Christian.  As a heathen I have yet to see the light, and in that sense "the Lord" holds less meaning and less impact.  "Serving the Lord" is difficult to do with integrity when I have not yet come to know the Lord.

So what's a heathen to do?

While listening to the Pastor's words during the Baptism of a new member of the congregation today something hit me.  I don't need to serve "The Lord" in a Christian sense, but I can serve those that Serve the Lord.  Participating and assisting in the good works of the Church would feel right, and at the same time do good for others.   I don't have to "Serve the Lord" to be of service.

Hopefully that perspective will be good enough, at least at this point in my journey.

The Human Nature of Belief

The nature of Belief.   Where does it come from?  Is it in the water?  Is it in the Air?

Nope.  It's in the community.

I believe (where'd that come from?)  that humans are wired to believe what their community believes.  This is a powerful and scary thing.  More personal study is warranted here, regardless of my journey.

This opens up at least a couple of cans of worms.  The big one is the "metaphysical" issue of how to address the challenge of making sure that the "right" beliefs are adopted by the community.  What promotes truth in a community?  What are the overall conditions that create a community that propagates only the right beliefs?

I like the smaller can.   We can choose to join communities whose beliefs cause the right outcomes.  Ignore the beliefs and focus on the outcomes.  That is an easier exercise, and one that permits action and (beneficial) change.

And that big metaphysical can?  Well, perhaps joining a good community will provide a network of beliefs that provides some answers.  And we won't know until we jump in the water.

The net result - the path to belief in God might be a matter of choosing to join the right community. A simple, and powerful, and scary thing.

Epi Phony (not a spelling mistake)

Epi - The prefix epi from the Greek preposition ἐπί meaning: above, on, over, nearby, upon; outer; besides, in addition to; among;attached to; or toward. (a pretty useful prefix :) )
Phony - The suffix phone or phony having to do with sound, from Greek phōnē: sound, voice, as in telephony.

Put them together and do you get "sound form above ?"

Pastor Ray talks of (I wish I could recall the phrase exactly) an unaccountably wonderful and warm sensation that people associate with the transformation from somebody like me who is visually impaired (when it comes to Christianity) into someone that knows.  I might be over-anticipating, but I think I have a sense of what this might be like for me. In my case it could well be tied to the beauty of music.

One of the albums on my iPod is "Highway of Dreams" by Bradley Walker.  A good listen, if you are "into" county (and even if you ain't).  In the past, listening to the songs has been a humanist experience.  Emotions would tug my heart-strings, predictably at the points of human folly and suffering.  Today I found something different.

Exhibit one - "He carried her memory" - a good C&W tale about the sadness and eventual demise of a man  saddened by the desertion by a loved one.  My point of maximum empathy has typically been at the protagonist's eventual suicide. The surprise today was how much empathic pain I felt (for the first time in my life) at the line "and he never darkened another church door".  Wonderful and confusing.

Exhibit two - "A little change" - the ballad of a man "trapped" by a materialistic life, and the derelict asking for some change. The redemption comes with the protagonist's realization that he has strayed, and his plea to Jesus for help in changing back.  His plea carries more authenticity than it used to.  Perhaps I'm learning.  Perhaps I'm being given a little change (for those that listen to the song).

To get back to the pun; Wikipedia (the repository of much earthly knowledge anyway) explains Epiphany as the term used to mark the moment when a person realizes their faith.

And hence the mis-spelling. My epiphany may come as an epi-phony. Catalyzed by music inspired from above. 

By definition it cannot match that other meaning of "phony" that you were worried about.