Contraptions of the Utmost Simplicity

Ah, these humid summer nights in Vermont...I'm enjoying them fondly before I embark on a journey to Penn State University, where, with a bit of luck and a lot of effort, I'll be living for the next six years (eep!).  It’s weird to think about, considering that I've lived in Vermont all my life.

And where will I be in six years?  Hopefully thinking about raising a family, given that I'll be almost thirty years old!  Life can go by so quickly, but there is always -this- moment, the one that I am in (or you, the reader, are in) right now.  Familiar words from my valedictory address so many years ago.  Life is so worth living, even through the tough times.  Not because life is always fun, but because you are always *alive*.

Not so many years ago I was a huge fan of reincarnation.  But now I’m not so confident.  Today I put more emphasis on the belief that there is no afterlife, primarily because of the way that belief makes me perceive my life.  I don’t waste time like I used to.  And I spend more time with family and friends, because I see the value of company more clearly.  For the same reason, I’m more willing to help others.  I do what I want to do because it makes maximizes happiness.  I guess I’m a utilitarian in that regard.

On the other hand, I suppose if I believed in reincarnation I’d be a bit more relaxed.  If I were more relaxed, perhaps I’d live longer.  But would I want to live longer if I were just wasting time?

Not that this logic necessarily applies to you, the reader!  A given belief can affect different people in an equally different number of ways.

Beliefs are an amazing part of people’s lives.  One cannot not have beliefs – at least, as far as I can conceive.  Even if you begin all of your interactions with a thought as crazy as ‘I have no beliefs’, that is in it self a belief.  The same goes with other self-sustaining beliefs, such as ‘Nothing is real’.

But of course not all beliefs lead directly to happiness – take, for example, the belief that ‘stealing is wrong’.  Hey, if I believed I could just take what I wanted and use it myself, I’d have a lot more things that I want, and presumably I’d be happier.  But I believe that stealing is wrong because such a belief makes me feel more secure.  As long as I believe that stealing is wrong, and as long as everyone else believes that stealing is wrong, I know I don’t have to worry about my own possessions being taken.  And if I were to come in contact with a person who didn’t believe that stealing was wrong, I probably wouldn’t hang around him or her.  So in a roundabout way, even self-discipline beliefs have their place in ensuring my own happiness.

Humans are exceptionally logical creatures (though I assume all animals are).  I think this is particularly evident in the case of religious beliefs.  All of our beliefs are structured to be self-consistent.  Let us continue with the example mentioned above, reincarnation.  When a person dies, the body continues to exist, but its capacity to exhibit attributes commonly associated with human life (movement, communication, and reproduction, for example) cease.  From the most simplistic perspective, that life is over.  But a belief in reincarnation can easily be accessed through a variety of modifications – the belief in a soul, which carries the essence of that human life (the personality) out of the body and into a new one.  Though I suspect most lack the ability to claim ever seeing or perceiving a soul (with the exception of one’s own), I am certain one could easily answer a variety of probing questions.  For example, ‘where is the soul?’ could be answered with a particular organ (the heart, say) or even borrow from the realm of science & science fiction (another dimension).  Or ‘how does the soul get in and out of the body?’ could be answered, even specifically (through the top of the head, or through the mouth).  Beliefs are the foundations of our thoughts, our interactions with others, and our lives in general.  They are our contraptions of the utmost simplicity.

I’m not presenting these arguments to show that ‘my way’ is the right way (but of course, I *believe* it is, just like you *believe* ‘your way’ is the right way – we all do, lest we wouldn’t believe it!), but to point out a much more general conclusion – that beliefs are self-consistent and the logic that surrounds them is mutable.  Beliefs, especially here in the so-called West, are not subject to physical measurement.

Not that they need to be.  But for me to believe them, at least at this point in my life, they do.