The question of our day seems to be, What can we know? There are those on one end of the spectrum who say that nothing can be known for sure. That we cannot be certain of anything. Their natural conclusion is that there is no truth -- or at least any objective truth. All we have is what we perceive and thus everything is both subjective and relative. So we come up with our personal truths. It's true for you and that is about as far as it goes.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who are entirely committed to objective truth -- and nothing else. All that exists is what can be tested. These folks say, "I'll believe in God when his existence can be proven in the laboratory." For them it's all about empirical evidence.
Ironically, both of these views -- nothing is real and only the physical world is real -- although they are diametrically opposed, tend to be the two acceptable positions among the intellectual elite.
Hmmm. Looks like our search for meaning may be more complicated than we first thought. It would seem that it is not just religion that is floundering but also philosophy and science are not doing much better. We could argue for hours as to just who has the best view on meaning and we'd probably just have to agree to disagree. There are a lot of answers out there. It is like an endless all you can eat smorgasbord and have we ever learned to overeat. It is technically called pluralism, but it is fundamentally an all-you-can-eat salad bar of beliefs. There are an endless number of belief systems around us and the issue is not so much that we have to choose between them, but that we can pick and choose the parts we like best from each one.
There was once a time when everyone who lived in the same community shared the same beliefs. We were all part of a tribe and had a tribal shaman who would pass along to us the beliefs, values and culture that held us together. We didn't really have a lot of options back in the day and it may not have even occurred to us that there were even other ways to think, others ways to see reality, other ways to believe. Not so today ... we have lots of options and opportunities. We can have it our way.
I remember when it all began in my adolescent days. Burger King freed us from standardization. Imagine the possibility of ordering a burger made specifically to our order. Many of you have no idea what I am even talking about. Of course, you can have it your way. You know no other way.
Another example ... say you wanted to buy your girlfriend or child a stuffed teddy bear ... you went to the toy store [no internet, e-Bay, Amazon.com in those days] and picked out a stuffed bear ... there wasn't much selection. Just yesterday at the Governor's Square Mall here in Tallahassee I walked past the Build-A-Bear store. As you no doubt are aware, this is a store where you have basically an endless number of options for the bear you want to create. After you've picked out all your accessories, a store employee stuffs it, sews it up, checks you out and you're good to go. It is pretty much the same these days with religion. You don't need to carefully find one; weigh one against the other; you can just make one.
Once only the cultural elite would engage in philosophy; now everyone is a philosopher ... hence this blog and the myriad of blogs on the web. What is strange, though, is that we seem more motivated to create our own truth than we are to search for it.
Perhaps it is important to remember here that more is not always better. And when you throw in all the countless voices who have become the cultural experts in pop psychology even the most compulsive among us may agree that less is more. However, this moment does provide a great opportunity for self-discovery. If ever there was a moment when we could see that the proof of God is not in the answers, it is now. If anything, the endless number of options only moves us toward disbelief. We may not be able to exactly put our finger on it, but what actually is happening is that our souls are being spammed.
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