“The Prison of Doubt” & “The Weight of Glory”
The Prison of Doubt
Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
- Mark 5:36
What if I told you that the very lens through which you view the world isn’t in fact your own?
Could this be?
Since Descartes introduced man to doubt and reason, we haven’t looked back. We’ve accomplished extraordinary scientific feats and marvelous cultural achievements, and using these as proof, we’ve dismissed anything that came before as rudimentary and errant. Now, I have nothing against Descartes, science or the modern age - penicillin alone is enough justification for support - but I do believe that with our age of reason we’ve lost some very fundamental aspects of how we view the world. This is difficult to explain, but I’ll try to simplify it as much as possible…
With reason and the scientific method came the glorification of doubt, and it’s difficult to portray just how far-reaching the effects of this have been. See, as a species, doubt wasn’t always our first reaction - we tended to form our beliefs based on intuition, trust and necessity. In a certain sense, we molded the world to our minds rather than the other way around, and this had strikingly different results. I want you to imagine two men, one living in 500 B.C. and one living now. They both are looking up at the stars and pondering life. The man from the past sees this vast array of lights and beauty in the sky and calls it the home of the gods. He doesn’t need to ask any more questions, doesn’t need to prove it. He just knows. Meanwhile, the man living now looks up at the stars and immediately begins questioning. He deduces what things can or cannot be based on his knowledge. If he sees something out of the ordinary, say a shooting star, his first thought isn’t “this must be a sign from God”. More likely, his first inclination is to doubt and question until he finds a suitable, rational answer.
I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, “well of course, we’ve advanced far as a civilization and, quite obviously, the second man is right.” What you mean by this is that the second man is conceptualizing truth while the first man is misinformed by his lack of knowledge. Logically, that certainly makes sense, until I ask you another question: what is “truth”? What does that word even mean?
Perhaps your answer would be “scientifically proven” or “in accordance with the laws of nature” or something of the like. That (and that that alone) is what we are taught to be truth. There’s just one little problem with this - it assumes that our scientific and material understanding of the world is flawless. According to our current model (i.e. quantum mechanics, string theory, the problem of consciousness), we know that our understanding is far from flawless. In fact, the one thing most of the greatest minds today can agree on is that we don’t really know what’s going on. We’re beginning to see the cracks of what I believe is going to be the next phase of understanding, the next transition of our consciousness. As of yet, we’re still a ways away.
Let’s return to our men. Let’s leave the question of the stars out for a minute, and just focus on their experiences. The man from the past sees the gods, and to him they are the gods. As such, he acts accordingly. To him, it doesn’t actually matter what they “actually” are. To him, they influence his reality just the same whether they were gods or rays of light. His belief creates his reality. The same principle applies to the second man, but in reverse. To him, the stars are simply working parts in a machine. His process of doubt, although we may perceive it as “truth”, makes it impossible for him to see the stars as anything greater.
So, am I just waxing philosophic or am I trying making a point? There are two words that I have been constantly coming across in my work the last few years: “experience” and “observer”. Whether it be in quantum physics or something like process philosophy, these to concepts keep popping up. I don’t think that’s meaningless. What I’m starting to see is the development of an understanding of our minds and our realities that are highly dependent on observation and experience. Things like time and space are more fluid than we ever could have imagined. The literature is vast and dense on these topics, and I don’t want to blabber on any further. What I will say is that I know something is there, hidden behind the veil of “how things are supposed to be”.
I want to make it clear that this is not some kind of positive thinking philosophy like “The Secret”. It’s something deeper, more abstract, more fundamental. I can’t yet describe it and maybe I’ll never be able to, but I am certain of one thing: the way we think things are is not the way things are. That’s enough to lead me to the point of this segment…
If you live in most places in the world, especially in the West, you have been taught to doubt since your first breath. It wasn’t called “doubt” because no one even knew it was there. Your parents and teachers were oblivious to the mental machinations that were handed down to them, like most of us usually are. You were taught to question, pry, doubt and find truth through the rigidity of reason alone. I certainly was, and I know that there’s still so much influence within me that I’m not conscious of. I just know that when I interpret any information - mental or sensory - the process of reasoning begins without me even knowing it. The trickle down effects of the cultural consciousness can be quite extraordinary.
Like I said, there’s no problem with reason. If nothing else, it’s a great example of the extraordinary power of the human mind. It’s perhaps even a stepping stone for more advanced versions of human thought; however, reason alone means doubt alone. Doubt alone brings fear.
Fear is the child of reason.
Fear is the result of the bifurcation of mind and matter.
Fear is the progeny of a world broken down into calculated, machinistic parts.
You don’t have to believe me, but if you take the time to look around, to talk to people and to actually listen, you’ll find that we live in a society that is completely infested by fear. Anxiety, depression, mental illness of all sorts run rampant. Illness, corruption and violence fill the news reels daily. Do you think that’s how this was all designed to be? Do you think this is just “how it is”?
Today’s message is one of hope. There’s more out there (in this world and beyond it) than we could ever imagined it. The doubts and fears in your mind aren’t all real, and they most certainly aren’t your fault. The truth remains hidden, but it permeates and breathes through all things. It is beautiful. It is alive. It is joyous.
Don’t be afraid. Just believe.
The Weight of Glory
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
- Romans 8:18
For today’s second segment, I’m going to hand it over to someone who did it much better than I ever could. I think it accompanies the first segment quite well.
I give you an excerpt from C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory:
And this brings me to the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendour, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. For you must not think that I am putting forward any heathen fancy of being absorbed into Nature. Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects.
Beautiful.