American Heathen®

It’s a simple question when it comes to what you believe in.

Are you willing to be wrong?

Believer or non-believer… are you so sure about what you believe in that you are willing to be wrong?

Let’s suppose that tomorrow there is a 500km asteroid that hits the planet.  (Yeah, like you think NASA would spot it in time, right?  Or that we’d be notified of it?)  We’re all toast in a matter of minutes.  There is no last-minute team of crackpots and astronauts launching to save the world with an Aerosmith soundtrack and some Made-For-Fox patriotic montages.  Morgan Freeman will not be promising to rebuild.  We wouldn’t even have time to meet with that long-lost family member that we disowned just so we could forgive them for being jerks.  There would be no shelters or arks that would save humanity.  There wouldn’t be any time for them.  We’d be dead.  All of us.  Well, okay, maybe the folks at the International Space Station would live, but not for long.  They would run out of air and food eventually and there wouldn’t be any left here to get.

Let’s suppose that out of some freak of cosmic nature, we are all given one minute (60 human seconds) after we are all toast to be told the ultimate universal truth of who was RIGHT about the hereafter.  (I know it’s not a physical possibility, but work with me on this one, okay atheists?)  If A certain belief is right about the hereafter, we all find ourselves subject to their judgment after that minute… and if the atheists are right, then after the minute is up, it’s just game over.

If the non-believers are right, that would suck for the believers, wouldn’t it?  I mean, sure they might live virtuous lives and all, but that’s it.  And think of all of the stuff that they miss out on.  No sex before marriage… no booze… no eating certain foods… all of that money spent on donations… 60 seconds of denial, anger, and some regret… and then game over.

But if A certain belief turns out to be right, does it mean that ALL believers win?  No.

For starters, A belief does not necessarily mean that YOUR belief is the one that is right.  Obviously if it is your belief then you get to gloat.  But you have to consider that with all of these different faiths, all of these different interpretations, all of these different dogmas, that any one of them COULD be the “right” one.  Wouldn’t that be an ethereal kick in the mouth to find out that one of those little cult groups that you used to make fun of gets the free pass and you don’t?

And what happens to you then?  You would probably be subject to whatever rule the “right” one has about non-believers.   Again, great if YOUR belief is the one that gets the nod, but sucks if you aren’t.

Or maybe none of them get it!  Maybe NONE of the current faiths are the right one.

Imagine finding out in that cosmic “grace minute” that the “right” belief was one that was practiced 1500 years ago in Europe that ended up being hunted down and driven to extinction by followers of YOUR faith.  Boy that would REALLY be an awkward moment wouldn’t it?  Good luck explaining that one.

But the believers I converse with don’t think such things… because they have it in their minds that they are right.  Being “wrong” doesn’t even factor into the equation, because as far as they are concerned, they are RIGHT… PERIOD!

And if by some astronomically remote chance that they aren’t “the ones”, then they have a couple of ways they try to “game” the system.

The first is the neutralization and minimization of any other belief.  This is the reason why they feel the need to have governments large and small endorse and sanction their beliefs at every corner and have symbols of THEIR faith at every plot of land and every piece of property.  It’s more than just ego-gratification and narcissism-by-proxy.  If everything in the world says that “X-belief” is the only one out there, then it goes that the followers of “X-belief” win.  Or at least that’s the theory.

It’s essentially a “win” by attrition and branding.  But it presupposes that the “X-belief” curries favor with that supreme being, because if not then they just condemned everyone on the planet.

The second way is sort of a “pass”.  It’s a fallback to the attrition/branding effort.  Think of it as a “Get Out Of Oblivion Free” card.  It operates on the assertion that even if your faith is not “the chosen” faith that you still curry favor with the ultimate cosmic power simply by being the best that you can and that it should be “good enough” to get you in.

Let’s say that you’re a Baptist and the Lutherans end up being “the” faith.  All you have to do is say “hey, we’re all Christians!  I’m a Christian.  They’re Christians.  We should be allowed in anyway.”

Unless, of course, it’s YOUR belief that is “the” belief.  Then you’re not-so generous about it, are you?  No, usually you’re the one that would be saying “HEY, they may be Christians, but they’re not the RIGHT kind of Christians!  They’re not like us!  Go suck brimstone with the rest of the losers!”

BUT that’s only presuming that they could even possibly be WRONG… which they will firmly tell you that they are most certainly NOT!

That’s not to say that the atheists are any better at this.  Some of them can be very boisterous in their convictions not just that they are RIGHT, but that those who believe are WRONG.  However at least they know what is at stake here.  They’re not trying to hedge their bets or to game the system.  (By the way, atheists, please don’t get into this whole “non-belief is not a belief” debacle.  That’s a subject for future discussion.)

So it all goes back to my original question… are you confident enough in your belief to not just be RIGHT, because it’s easy to be right, but also be willing to be WRONG?

IF it turns out that what you believe is not right, IF it turns out that the path to salvation was not a road but a cliff, are you confident enough to be willing to accept the consequences?  That’s what it is to be willing to be WRONG.

Remember, that huge rock could fall tomorrow.

Just a little something for people of any kind of belief to ponder.