These subjects. They seem to be everywhere. They go beyond the TV, the Internet, the conferences, to certain of my recent activities and relations. Nancy Gerbault of the Abroad Writers Conference http://www.abroad-crwf.com sent me an invitation recently for a conference in Thailand. It was a conference for writers, featuring Rebecca Walker, Chris Abani, Lama Choyin Rangdrol, Bertil Lintner and former editorial assistant of G.P. Putnam’s – Doubleday editor and now New York Literary Agent Renee Zuckerbrot, among others.
I had just finished a conversation with a Japanese friend that worked for the French Embassy. An evening in that workshop caught my attention: An evening with Lama Choyin Rangrol, the only African-american teacher recognized by the Buddhist Centres. His foundation aimed at serving the needs of people regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief.
How come in some dimension, like that attained in writing conferences, we see people with different background relating so well and positively. Where does religion, culture, racial difference, stop being a dividing factor?
Our history and background completely influence the way we think. To a person who grew in a communist country for example, he may not see why a virgin should give birth to a child, so the Christian preacher may have to start elsewhere. To a totalitarian, religion produces intolerance. To a person from an Islamic republic, the totalitarian government is hiding God from the people. Today, in some societies, Children are almost forbidden to pronounce the word God. Yet there seems to be that innate aspect of man that shows faith in something, and the elements of religion seem to persist even to those who do not believe. Politics foster religion in some parts of the world. Politics prohibit religion in some parts of the world. In either case, the ruling party could use its stand on religion as an advantage. We wonder where the truth lies. Some say religion is primitive thing, but the world is going back to some of the natural things it gave up in the name of civilisation. That we see the greatest scientists believe and the most illiterate not believe suggests it is a thing of choice.
Any side you belong to as you read this article, you would have seen yourself arguing in that direction! Thinking you are very right!
“If most religions contradict the other, which should be true?” my Japanese friend had asked me.
“History may have many versions, but there is one that is true and it exists above all,” I said.
These days, I try to defend those who believe before those who do not, and to defend the distant nature of those who have not had the opportunity to believe, before those who do.
“Even if there is some truth, we do not know what it is.”
“Doesn’t the organisation of things show that there is some intelligence?” I asked her.
“This all has to do with chance.”
“The intelligent design theory differentiates between what is chance and what is not. Take for example, the rat trap. Once you remove a single constituent, it stops functioning. A glass that fell by chance and produced a good design on the floor will retain its beauty even if you remove one, two or three particles.”
“Some scientists stumbled into their finding by chance. No matter how organised it turned out later,” she said.
“Sure, but compare the plane they designed, and the half-hazard burnt on the first plate Marie-curie used.”
“You as a geoscientist, don’t you believe in evolution?”
“The principles of geology that have been associated to evolution sometimes work, but many argue that they would have still worked even if not associated to evolution. Look at the Bible’s description of creation; how God started from creating the sea, the sea life . . . and man last. Not far different from the scientific theory of evolution, except the dating difference. Yet, that first book of Genesis had nothing to do with science.”
“I agree that there is a dimension to life which we don’t fully understand.”
“And what if after death it turned out there was really something, wouldn’t it have been better to believe something? Perhaps late for those who did not . . .”
“Even if I wanted to believe . . . to belief in a religion, which one would I?”
It was here I kept quiet and allowed her to give me her lecture on tolerance. I have learnt a lot from her. She reminded me of that Samaritan who helped the stranger, and was commended by Jesus as the true neighbour.
“There is something in life that links every being.”
“The spirit of God,” I said.
“You can call it God, but I think it is some force, some control, some chance that determines destiny.”
“If that chance is intelligent enough to produce this present world, why do you think it wont have created the after life?”
“Chance will still put me where it wants,” she replied.
When does chance decide in life’s daily affairs? Marriage? Carrier? No of Children? Destination choice for the next vacation? What are the consequences? When does our attempt to direct the courses of events fail?
When do we take decisions regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief?
Where is the missing link between our differences and our similarities?
Hi folks,