Friday, I leave for school. I sent off the apartment money yesterday. It’s just me and my buddy Ben. We plan on talking of many things, of shoes and shirts and ceiling wax and whether rational beings can co-exist in an irrational culture. I don’t think that last part was part of Wonderland. But irrationality is part of many, many people.
On a related topic, lately I’ve been watching a four-part BBC called The Century of the Self. (Why is it that England makes all the best documentaries?) It’s the history of psychoanalysis, patented by Freud, and worked upon by others wanting to know what makes humans human. My personal favorite is Abraham Mazlow, but I digress. You can find all four parts of this amazing documentary here.
One part stood out. Professor Martin Bergman, who conducted psychoanalysis of soldiers coming back from WWII said this: “The ratio between the irrational and the rational in America is very much in favor of the irrational.”
And this got me thinking of belief and faith (as I often do). Mostly, a recent study that shows how far Americans lag behind in the acceptance of the theory of evolution, seen here:
So, as it appears, this country is less educated than others… 32 other countries to be exact. Now, really there’s only one explanation for this and it’s something that is becoming less and less accepted throughout the world: divine faith.
I don’t know how long it’s going to take for Americans to realize that this world is natural, and that supernaturalism is just a figment of their imagination, but what I do know is that slowly, very slowly, there’s an underground movement resting its own faith in something tangible: reason. I like to call it the rational movement, and I’m proud to be a part of it. I can only hope that rationality will be enough to overcome all the crazies out there. I can only hope…
Peace & Love.
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August 16, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Adnan Muminovic
Hey pal, it’s your buddy Adnan…well, first I’d like to say…nice job on a thought provoking topic. Well, here’s my opinion on it. I agree and disagree with you. I agree that this country is far too irrational in it’s behavior, attitudes, and politics. However, I disagree that this is due to people believing in the divine. I consider myself a god-fearing man yet I strongly believe in and support the theory of evolution. Faith and reason can co-exist quite peacefully as long as people are accepting of each other. Which is kinda funny, I know, because most people that are of a particular faith are often un-accepting of others. Most faith’s teach lessons of acceptance and harmony and as long as people take them to heart, people usually get along. Take for example, the middle-east before the crusades. Even though it was a largely Islam dominated region, christianity actually thrived within it. Christians were left alone to their devices and even protected from bandits, if they paid taxes to the local Sultan. It wasn’t until a French pope decided to abandon the teachings of peace, harmony, and accpetance that the crusades began. So you see, it isn’t faith that caused the event, but the perversion and twisting of faith. Faith in the divine, in it’s pure form, is quite a benificial thing to humanity. It keeps people glued together during times of crisis.
Oh yea…and that part about the Supernatural…I agree, there is no such thing…however, what we perceive as supernatural now, it merely nature in a form that we do not yet understand…it’s gonna take maybe the entire future of the human race to figure out the almighty’s many wonders. We’ve only recently begun to understand how the universe works and how we are connected to it…and the more we discover, the more difficult it becomes to believe that everything is an un-guided process. I personally believe that the almighty works in the ways of science. He works in the ways of nature, and nature is something that we can understand given enought time.