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.

An Educated Heathen

This Christianity stuff is complicated. At the very least, if I keep going like this I am going to end up a very well educated Heathen.

Today's efforts to understand... The Nicene Creed, and the Pentecost.  At least these are topics for today.  I have no anticipation that a mere day's exploration will yield any significant understanding.

As I said - this Christianity stuff is complicated.  Wish me luck.