Ordinary Arrogance, and Religious Gangster Arrogance.
I've been reading the latest of the Dave Robicheaux books from James Lee Burke, a gifted writer of mysteries/detective novels. Anyway, the name of this one is,"The Glass Rainbow." And one of the things Mr. Burke does so well in his books is his observations of human traits. It's like little nuggets of human truths, usually more on the darker side of people.
So this one observation jumped out at me, last night:
"To try to control the lives of other people is a form of arrogance. The only form of behavior that is more arrogant is to claim that we know the will of God." (P. 60.)
Other than the nearly obligatory observation by me, that I have met people suffering from both afflictions (or should I said, loudly barging through life like a bull on crack, forcing others to suffer on account of their dysfunction) I have to say yes. That last one really annoys the snot out of me.
Don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of organized religion. Admit that. I have no intellectual or emotional understanding of the why people believe, why they have faith. I mean, on paper I can dryly list the psychological and sociological reasons. But I truly can not get it. As a human, I can not really get it. But as a general rule, as long as folk keep their religious stuff to them selves, keep that shit in their homes and houses of worship, I adopt the live and let live attitude. On my worst days I say people should treat their religiosity to the same degree of privacy, and selfish - if shared with a tiny few - mystery (if not embarrassment) as sex. But I don't mean there should be no mention of it at all in the public square. But in a society that holds matters of religion as not so much one of social inclusion and binding (despite too much misunderstanding on this very point), but instead of individual conscience, the less that gets dragged out in public, the better. Which is to say in America all religions are equally valid. By operation of logic, however, they are all equally invalid. And that is where people fuck it all up. More so they fuck up that last part.
So now we get to Religious Gangster Arrogance. It's not merely the most extreme level of that arrogance, claiming to know the mind of the God, but actually, that general sense of,"I/We have the answers. You don't," that bugs the shit out of me. We are not talking rocket science here, people. Either your equations solve and are accurate, or shit blows up. It's tricky math, but it is finite. There is only one right answer, and it is testable and provable. But with religion?
I am reminded of this intellectual exercise from my intellectual property law classes. It's the black box problem. The inventor has the brilliant invention, but in order to prove how brilliant it is, he has to basically divulge the secret, and risk giving the invention away. For the prospective buyer, the problem is what ever is inside the box might be totally useless. It could be utterly worthless. It could be empty.
Religion reminds me of the black box problem, but for the one twist. It's not as if the seller is trying to hide something in the black box. There is nothing at all of any earthly substance in the box. As a matter of concrete, physical science, there is nothing in the box at all. So for the prospective buyer, if they are nuts and bolts kind of people, they can plainly see there is nothing in the box at all.
So here is where the arrogance kicks in. Prospective buyer points out that there is (as a matter of fact, of physical science) nothing in the box. It's a fucking empty box! But the Religious seller goes all arrogant (in substance, if not style) and stars blaming the prospective buyer for not being able to find something in the obviously empty box. "You have to look deeply in the box." "You have to look deeply in your own soul." "You have to change your outlook." "You have to give your self up to the Prophet/Son of God/God." "You have to set your mind/heart free." "You have to be born again." "You have to give up control to a higher power." "You have to let yourself go." "You have to let go of everything you think is true and embrace this truth. The real truth."
Now I am reminded of that great line of argument, and based on my quickie check, attributed lately to Stephen Roberts:
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
And that leads to the last element of Religious Gangster Arrogance, argued here in this post, at least. And that is the patently obvious arrogance and hypocrisy in true believers. Consider the arguments about the empty box I posted above. Now if people can reject all the defenses of any other religion's advocates, if they can see that those other guys' boxes are empty, how is it they can't see their own box is empty? Why does the very same arguments that seem stupid or otherwise lacking when used by people of other faiths, seem any better coming from themselves?
That is the dilemma. Not that it keeps me from sleeping at night, but as an intellectual matter, its quite the conundrum.
So this one observation jumped out at me, last night:
"To try to control the lives of other people is a form of arrogance. The only form of behavior that is more arrogant is to claim that we know the will of God." (P. 60.)
Other than the nearly obligatory observation by me, that I have met people suffering from both afflictions (or should I said, loudly barging through life like a bull on crack, forcing others to suffer on account of their dysfunction) I have to say yes. That last one really annoys the snot out of me.
Don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of organized religion. Admit that. I have no intellectual or emotional understanding of the why people believe, why they have faith. I mean, on paper I can dryly list the psychological and sociological reasons. But I truly can not get it. As a human, I can not really get it. But as a general rule, as long as folk keep their religious stuff to them selves, keep that shit in their homes and houses of worship, I adopt the live and let live attitude. On my worst days I say people should treat their religiosity to the same degree of privacy, and selfish - if shared with a tiny few - mystery (if not embarrassment) as sex. But I don't mean there should be no mention of it at all in the public square. But in a society that holds matters of religion as not so much one of social inclusion and binding (despite too much misunderstanding on this very point), but instead of individual conscience, the less that gets dragged out in public, the better. Which is to say in America all religions are equally valid. By operation of logic, however, they are all equally invalid. And that is where people fuck it all up. More so they fuck up that last part.
So now we get to Religious Gangster Arrogance. It's not merely the most extreme level of that arrogance, claiming to know the mind of the God, but actually, that general sense of,"I/We have the answers. You don't," that bugs the shit out of me. We are not talking rocket science here, people. Either your equations solve and are accurate, or shit blows up. It's tricky math, but it is finite. There is only one right answer, and it is testable and provable. But with religion?
I am reminded of this intellectual exercise from my intellectual property law classes. It's the black box problem. The inventor has the brilliant invention, but in order to prove how brilliant it is, he has to basically divulge the secret, and risk giving the invention away. For the prospective buyer, the problem is what ever is inside the box might be totally useless. It could be utterly worthless. It could be empty.
Religion reminds me of the black box problem, but for the one twist. It's not as if the seller is trying to hide something in the black box. There is nothing at all of any earthly substance in the box. As a matter of concrete, physical science, there is nothing in the box at all. So for the prospective buyer, if they are nuts and bolts kind of people, they can plainly see there is nothing in the box at all.
So here is where the arrogance kicks in. Prospective buyer points out that there is (as a matter of fact, of physical science) nothing in the box. It's a fucking empty box! But the Religious seller goes all arrogant (in substance, if not style) and stars blaming the prospective buyer for not being able to find something in the obviously empty box. "You have to look deeply in the box." "You have to look deeply in your own soul." "You have to change your outlook." "You have to give your self up to the Prophet/Son of God/God." "You have to set your mind/heart free." "You have to be born again." "You have to give up control to a higher power." "You have to let yourself go." "You have to let go of everything you think is true and embrace this truth. The real truth."
Now I am reminded of that great line of argument, and based on my quickie check, attributed lately to Stephen Roberts:
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
And that leads to the last element of Religious Gangster Arrogance, argued here in this post, at least. And that is the patently obvious arrogance and hypocrisy in true believers. Consider the arguments about the empty box I posted above. Now if people can reject all the defenses of any other religion's advocates, if they can see that those other guys' boxes are empty, how is it they can't see their own box is empty? Why does the very same arguments that seem stupid or otherwise lacking when used by people of other faiths, seem any better coming from themselves?
That is the dilemma. Not that it keeps me from sleeping at night, but as an intellectual matter, its quite the conundrum.
posted by Abstentus at 1:37 PM
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