Beyond The Veil of Dogma
The sand was dry, the air salty, and I was head under water, blacked out. When I woke up I had washed ashore several feet from where my parents were sitting. I remembered only blackness. I ran to my parents, but couldn’t explain what had just happened. The truth was that at seven-years-old I didn’t know what to think of it. Was it a near death experience? Perhaps, but I didn’t see any golden gates, only the black of unconsciousness.
In our society many legends, conspiracy theories, and supernatural stories pervade. Ghosts, UFOs, and sasquatch are three prominent examples. While some evidence to prove their existence does exist, much of it is unaccepted by mainstream science, leaving individuals to decide what to believe in based on their own judgments. But really, is the concept of God any different than these other supernatural theories?
In his paper “The Cognitive Psychology of Belief in The Supernatural,” Dr. Jesse M. Bering proposes the idea that god is a manifestation of people’s desires to attach meaning to the chaotic events of their lives. “Not many people would classify their beliefs in God or heaven as ‘supernatural,’” he says, “even though that's precisely what they are.” Faced with a traumatic experience, a person could turn to faith to find an answer: “Could a belief in God have evolved to help people tear off bits of meaning from an otherwise meaningless existence?” In so doing, they might gain a sense of control and belonging – feelings sought after by most human peoples.
Man’s quest for knowledge has driven him to the conclusion that there must be a God. However, because an internal drive (desire) is the cause for this conclusion, it must be discredited as a possible reality since it is essentially an external manifestation of a non-external factor.
But emotional factors also play a role in belief. Lisa Lansing, president of the UGAtheists, can attest to this: “My mom committed suicide a year ago and I had those thoughts of ‘Oh I hope I get to see her again,’ but my beliefs were already established by then and I had to accept that I would never see her again and instead just be happy for the time we had together.” Although this sense of grief could lead one to believe in God to seek comfort, it is a belief based in emotion, or a temporary response to present circumstances. “You see a lot of patterns in religions,” she says.
Cal Clements, owner and yoga instructor at Rubber Soul Yoga, is a self-proclaimed “Imaginative Atheist.” He concurs with Lisa’s proclamation that religions are systemic: “There’s all these religions in the world, but they’re all basically saying the same thing; we’re right and you’re wrong.” The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines dogma as “A point of view put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds.” Dogmatism is the antithesis of free-thought and when dogmatic views clash, wars can be the result. “When one side says the other is wrong it threatens their personal immortality,” says Cal, “It’s the cause for most of the worlds wars.”
On rare occasions, a devout atheist can revert to their former religious beliefs. Rich Suplita, a UGA Psychology lecturer, is one such Christian turned Atheist turned back to Christian. On the subject of dogmatism, Rich says “I don’t believe it [Christianity] to be dogmatic, but rather, exclusive.” Like many Christians, Rich relies on the Bible for much of his personal evidence to support his claims that Christianity is the correct religion. “Revelations is written as apocrypha – literature in symbolic terms. But the gospels report to be historic literature,” he says. Despite his devout belief in the bible, Rich remains a free-thinker and says that “I believe that it is possible for all religions to be invalid, but as a Christian I don’t follow that.”
Another Atheist Journalist, William Hamby of the Atlanta Examiner, interviewed Rich and attributed his flip-flopping between beliefs to the long term effects of childhood indoctrination. “Where I see psychological mechanisms compelling him towards familiarity, nostalgia, and comfort, he sees the invisible hand of God pointing out the most compelling reasons to return to faith,” he says.
If no God exists, then after death we simply return to nothingness, like any other animal. But is nothingness truly worse, or different from the concept of an afterlife? “They’re not fearing death itself,” says Lisa, “they are fearing the experience of death.” Because who really knows what awaits us after death? Nothingness or singularity in heaven are equally plausible and mysterious outcomes. Both are also completely beyond comprehension within the human experience since by definition they exist outside of life itself, further justifying the lack of significant evidence to prove either as actual realities.
But perhaps believing in an idea is better than believing in a scientifically supported reality. Josh Wooton, a minister at the LifeChruch of Athens, an avant-garde Christian church that is based on the Baptist denomination, says “Does it take less faith to believe in evolution than God? If we all came from the primordial soup, then where did the soup come from?” He theorizes that there are only a handful of scholars who can understand the creation of the universe through evolution and that it is just as plausible for a divine creator to have been involved. “It takes some kind of faith to believe in evolution,” he says. “The greatest scientists in the world can’t explain where the first piece of matter came from without God.”
University of Georgia theology professor William L. Power says that belief in something should not be based solely on observable evidence. “There’s emotional and moral factors that must be taken into consideration when determining what one is to believe,” he says. “There are several levels to faith: First is to just believe it. Second is to believe on someone else’s authority. Third is to believe because of a personal experience.” To expound on Power’s third level; some people claim to have witnessed supernatural forces. To them, these things are real, but to another person their claims must be justified through credibility. Dr. Power, then suffering from a cold, gave an example: “I’m going to see my doctor tomorrow to get this cold checked out. I trust that, because he has gone to medical school, he is going to give me an accurate assessment. But I would have to go to medical school myself to truly believe what he is saying.” Similarly, Christians trust (have faith) that what the bible is telling them is true based on evidences such as it’s widespread acceptance that lend to its observed credibility.
The communal aspect of church is a large draw for many religious peoples. People yearn for belonging and thus believe in things regardless of their absolute knowledge of them as truths since the belief alone provides them with a sense of belonging and collective comfort. Some atheists would argue that to them it is better to suffer the fear of the unknown in mass than on one’s own. But atheists are not immune to the natural human desire for community; the UGAtheists meet once weekly on campus to discuss philosophical matters regarding life after death and the greater meaning of life, albeit without a god. – Is this truly any different than attending church every Sunday?
In an ideal world all believers would weigh the three evidences equally, but many do not, choosing instead to seal themselves within the confines of dogmatism. Perhaps this is due to laziness, ignorance, fear, or a combination. Regardless, millions of people have died to protect their dogmatic beliefs since the idea of another religion being correct threatens their personal salvation. Furthermore, they fear the idea of death, or nothingness - but those ideas are no more or less tangible than ghosts, UFO’s, sasquatch, or heaven. To humanize these ideas using man-made literature such as the bible and quoran is essentially a fallacy since the idea of god is intended to be beyond human understanding. And yet it is human nature to quest after knowledge and understanding of the unexplainable. “Religion is man’s attempt to understand God,” Josh says. People should never stop trying to understand the natural world or theorizing about the world that awaits them, but it should be done through a veil of personal skepticism, not from behind the blinding mask of dogmatism.
I stood at the
surface
of a frozen pond
and wondered what was inside.
But then I realized
it didn’t matter,
because what’s there
was in my mind.
