Apr 10, 2025 06:42 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 11, 2025 05:18 AM by Magical Realist.)
There is value in believing in something without evidence. We basically do it everyday. We go out our door believing our car will start. We order food believing it will taste good. We pay our taxes believing that will satisfy the IRS. We cast our lines into the river believing we will catch a fish. Faith, in the sense of having a belief in some metaphysical or spiritual aspect of the universe, cannot rely on pre-existing evidence or even upon rationality. Faith jumps on the first sign of or impulse towards the miraculous, the otherworldly, the cosmically destined-to-be. It is bold, rash and quite audacious. Quite literally, I believe therefore see. Faith however miniscule, however seemingly irrational, is the spark that gets the show going. That allows us to take action. And that opens us up to the interactive presence of the profound and uncanny.
But at the same time, there is also great value in suspending belief. Of being agnostic with regards to the existence/agency of higher powers. Not so much a skeptical mindset as just a neutral and non-judgmental stance on the possibility of higher meaning. Such a patient wait-and-see attitude imparts a deliberate naivete and openness to the transcendental, not pigeon-holing it as this or that but going with the flow so to speak in a supple and innocent detachment. We must carefully tread the thin line between postmodern illusionism and metaphysical realism.
So let those beautiful beliefs bubble up within you. Let the illusions of faith temporarily constellate out of the random noise of mundane life. Let the unconscious magical thinking dream forward its stories. But also reign it in a little, being good-humored about it all as one would playing a game with some hidden and mischievous teacher. As Wittgenstein wisely said, "“The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.”
But at the same time, there is also great value in suspending belief. Of being agnostic with regards to the existence/agency of higher powers. Not so much a skeptical mindset as just a neutral and non-judgmental stance on the possibility of higher meaning. Such a patient wait-and-see attitude imparts a deliberate naivete and openness to the transcendental, not pigeon-holing it as this or that but going with the flow so to speak in a supple and innocent detachment. We must carefully tread the thin line between postmodern illusionism and metaphysical realism.
So let those beautiful beliefs bubble up within you. Let the illusions of faith temporarily constellate out of the random noise of mundane life. Let the unconscious magical thinking dream forward its stories. But also reign it in a little, being good-humored about it all as one would playing a game with some hidden and mischievous teacher. As Wittgenstein wisely said, "“The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.”