Suspending Disbelief

Understandium via pretendium.

As a reader or listener of any story we undergo what is called a willing suspension of disbelief as an attempt to understand the narration, trust the narrator, and interpret why the story is being told toward some underlying idea.

This suspension temporarily undermines suspicion. We are encouraged to have an open mind, but can we honestly do that then resurrect our senses at the end of the drama?

To enjoy any theme demands this—to let fiction entertain for a time is to insight the intent of the author to glean whatever underlying meaning for ourselves that can be siphoned off for future use or self improvement, or to simply be entertained.

This suspension of disbelief is a key point of christianity—the actors and storytellers now expect you to live in this state as a virtuous arrival at something, which is nothing at all.

In real life the story was rejected because it didn’t happen that way, but stories are as plentiful as those who believe them—and grow accordingly to the need that human foibles project into real life what lacks substance by any other view.

If there is any value in the Christ narrative it is this—to temporarily suspend doubt to repose some allegorical meaning or entertain some wishful daydream to escape the doldrums and insecurities of life and death. To demand it’s permanence is to stick humanity right where it is today—stuck in the past arguing a point that gave hope to despair, in which each is a symptom of the other.

Permanently suspending disbelief is impossible, for everyone is already an atheist. Trusting your doubt is as natural as temporarily suspending it to enjoy the show, but it isn’t meant as a permanent state of living—it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Things are not what they seem when you flip ‘em over. Our brains construct reality.

Flip the photo.

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Gaining a Deeper, Mature Faith

About a year ago Loy used the words, “maturing in faith”. Another reassuring catch phrase is, “deeper faith” or “deepening faith”, but what actually is the cognitive process of obtaining a deeper, more mature faith and why is it important to put effort to it? Why deconstruct doubt to reconstruct faith when you know it simply requires additional mental wrangling and dismissal of, or in many cases, spoliation of evidence?

Isn’t maturing in faith actually an increased commitment to self doubt after another exhaustive mental tug-o-war and rewording? Or, is it merely preserving bias longevity by simply ignoring doubt, bypassing evidence to cradle another attempt at belief into a smoother, steadier, methodical release of DHEA or relaxin? Maturing in faith is simply re-accepting your surrender, giving another try at reforming your thoughts—relax, god is testing your ability to lose an argument between your true self and your anchoring bias.

Painting on a house near me

Redoubling efforts to challenge doubt conforms one to a far more meaningful faith. One that frees your mind from the burden of original thought, for all religion creates copycats—soldiers of prepackaged t.v. dinner dogma by convincing yourself it’s actually a freewill thought. The choice is yours, but in trying to keep faith most will succeed. The reward is in the backslapping and camaraderie of thinking you get it, when you don’t.

Maturing in the gospel is simply an erroneous effort that lowers expectations of the benefit gained through faith.

Overhauling Belief Through Doubt

It is time for the world to embrace doubt. Running the hamster wheel for 3500 years of failed promises and the recent increases in divisive belief—beliefs that cause more hatred and self superiority, where peace is mere wordplay without ever meeting that objective.

It is time to doubt. Doubt that all you ever thought you knew was true. Doubt that the founders of religion and wealth blazed trails in actual wisdom, or just the most eloquently wrong winners of a debate in the history of the world. They’ve had their shot. Man and his belief has been the hurdle before the growth of our species. Mere convictions of primitive thought—hopes that have proven they have not elevated humanity. Doubt the path we are on will now unite us to make the world awesome. We can do better.

The failures are evidenced without a doubt. But we still church it up for the kids sake long after we know the intended result is a farce—never a fruition.

But, just hang in there, have faith and keep doing the same thing over and over. Someone once said that was crazy.

HERE is an Excellent TED on the gospel doubt. It is time to change directions.

Believe in Your Doubt

The founders knew the power of doubt and hedged the stupor of faith with some clever cautions. Now, doubt is considered a trial to mature you in the faith, “there will be doubters and temptations, but god will reward you for your faith”—Just believe, god is testing your devotion.

Using your good sense to forfeit your good sense makes no sense. It puts one in the position of “we believe” and everyone is smarter when they join a group, right? My son used to always say, “no one is as dumb as all of us“.

If you fear the unavoidable unknowns that bookend this existence, by all means join a group to influence you to prejudice. Now you are in a position to believe great and abominable things by the power of groupthink. Now, go ahead, condemn and judge at will, hope them wickeds to suffer and burn, for the power and backing of the group has now made you something you’re not.

The reality—doubt is a warning to your inner self that your being conned. It’s a natural feeling to protect ourselves, but has been carefully crafted into a weakness by religious men of words who have a dog in the fight. Doubt is a weakness? Only if you need to believe.

To those who want to protect their minds from assimilating imaginations, doubt is an essential strength. Never give up your power to speak out. Ignoring doubt produces exactly the conundrum that allows nonsense to flourish. Quelling your openness to question everything—by fear of rejection.

“Any group that will embrace you over belief, will abandon you over unbelief” Conditional friendships anyone?

Trust In You, Ye Prisoners of Doubt

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves—Joseph Campbell

For many years I felt like I was just supposed to trust those that said they knew what they were talking about. I was a prisoner of doubt—accepting another’s belief over my own ability. What’s really crazy about that—it was never even my own belief, but the beliefs that others believe others believed. I trusted people to be truthful. That is a sin worthy of cursing.

 “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man—Jeremiah 17:5

From whom do we get the stories? Yep! God is a no show.

What’s even crazier about that is what we decided to believe was all written about a desert nomad thousands of years ago (a myth) It really is something to put so much credence in the very old tale, while we ignore our own present abilities to serve the genes of a goat herder.

I now have no religious beliefs and the vast majority of the people in the world don’t have their own either. I don’t believe in god, but they don’t believe their own story either—but that of another. Who but a few animists, spiritualists, and atheists actually listen to themselves and tune into the world around them right here, right now?

Hope puts believers at enmity with the inevitables of life and the placebo is hope that someone else will change it for them”.

The way to insure a life of faith is to sacrifice your integrity for hope. So, it boils down to faith without evidence is the most exciting story, then spending the rest of your life defending that hope with an argument.