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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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.

Undeveloped Film

I read a book when I was a teenager called The Tracker, by Tom Brown. I still have a copy and my 7 year old daughter is a big fan of identifying tracks we find out on our hikes.

Anyway, I was living in the mountains working as a wrangler, guide, and packer for an outfit called High Country Packers and I read The Tracker. There’s a section about stalking deer, and if you’re patent and do it right, you can walk right up to them. So I gave it a try. There was a two point mule deer enjoying a salt-lick we had near camp to attract wildlife and I started after him. I guess it took an hour or so to walk up to him. He kept staring, dipping his head, and shifting his ears with a curious look on his face. Deer are reactive to movement, sound, and smell, so the trick is to be downwind, only moving when the deer isn’t looking—and be patient (and try not to laugh). I got to within ten feet and I gradually knelt down, took my little 110 out of my shirt pocket and took a whole roll of pictures. When I was done I moved a little hand wave and said “boo”. That deer bolted with an ass-over-tea-kettle stumble and off he went. Boom! I got back home when winter came and the film was missing. It’s a great story but I have no proof.

One difference between my story and religion; you can test the story for yourself and I am confident many if you could have similar results. Christianity has a story too, and if you test it you will see that it doesn’t add up in even one category or catch phrase.

I would like to find that film someday but no worries, I have honed the craft pretty well over the years. Unlike religion, it can be tested and demonstrated without excuse. Religions deferred method of responsibility is killing the planet. Nobody is coming to fix this, but unlike the deer, it won’t seem to go away with a hand wave and a boo. But like the deer, their colorblind to the obvious standing in front of them.

Islam, Moses, and Myth

So much of Judaism and Islam hinge on the story of Moses, and in Islam, Moses is mentioned more than any other prophet. Recent run-ins with Muslim proselytizers on WP have forced me to take a little look at the history and the doctrine of the Muslim faith. I have stuck to positive web sites and the Quran. Here’s a small bit of what I know.

Muslims hold Moses in very high regard. They have many stories of Moses’ life outside of the Old Testament and in the Quran he is mentioned a mere 115 times. I realize these stories are translations, but in general they read like Aesop’s Fables. Here is one;

According to Isra’iliyat hadith, during his childhood when Moses was playing on Pharaoh’s lap. He grabbed the Pharaoh’s beard, and also slapped him in his face. This action prompted the Pharaoh, to consider Moses as the Israelite who would overthrow him. In turn the Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses. The Pharaoh’s wife persuaded him not to, because he was an infant. Instead he decided to test Moses. Two plates were set before young Moses, one contained rubies and the other held glowing coals. Moses reached out for the rubies, but the angel Gabriel directed his hand to the coals. Moses grabbed a glowing coal and put it in his mouth, burning his tongue. After the incident Moses suffered from a speech defect, but was spared by the Pharaoh. (1)Go to historical narrative-

With so much riding on the story of Moses, I don’t think they got the memo that there is zero evidence that one word of it is true. They also teach the exodus (which didn’t happen) and the splitting of the sea. But from what they tell me, the Quran is infallible and ahead of its time. Here is a rebuttal persuasion from a Muslim on Mel’s site.

This is proof Muhammad was a prophet; 1- Creation of the universe: “Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then I split them apart?” (Quran 21:30) (is this allegorical, physical, or humanity?)

2- Mountains: “have we not made the earth an expanse and the mountains stakes” (Quran 78:6-7) (pure ambiguous evidence)

3- Aquatic origin: “And I created every living thing out of water” (Quran 21:30) (we are mostly water. Is this prophetic?)

Evidently number 1 is the Big Bang, 2 is geologic formation presented ahead of scientific knowledge of such things, and 3 is evolution. All based on the vision of a sheepherder according to the caller. But I suspect he was duped into believing the revelation about Moses and revelation didn’t cue him in that the story would be debunked. Also, as a casual observation it appears much of The Ten Commandments movie script is borrowed from the Quran more than the Bible.

One last note; The Quran is supposed to be read with the help of commentary and experts—sound familiar? It requires a lot of explaining.

Archeological studies have shifted from where and if, to when it happened. And the size and scope might just be a tad off. The best and closest event may be that Moses was an Egyptian priest that led a leper colony out of Egypt during the time of Akhenaten.

Why Islam? Is an Islamic site with Moses stories from the Quran if your curious.

Mau Goddess Bastet

I believe the Egyptians were on to something when they acknowledged the cat (Felis silvestris catusas) as a god. Bastet, a half human and half cat, is the closest representation in Egyptology to the Christian god YHWY. Cats toy with their victims who never know why, and the mouse, inferior physically, has to submit and quietly wonder what it all means. Never having to explain “why” and inflicting and allowing misery on those that don’t understand, is the YHWY way. The warring nature of Bastet is a shoe-in that would fit nicely into Christian history.