The Fifth Teaching
I’m afraid that I got very bored whilst at home with nothing to do, after the exams, and so I did the unthinkable… ok, I admit it, I read philosophy. Please forgive me! I was young and stupid! The boredom drove me over the edge! I’ll never do it again!
Right, that’s enough begging. The thing is, I came across two theories which really interested me:
1) Everything which dates back to before the creation was planted there by God so that we could believe that we had a history because creation and an all-powerful body capable of creating our world was jut too huge for humans to grasp.
2) There is no reality. It’s been blown up to such huge proportions by the media and modern life that people have lost sense of reality and so it has ceased to exist.
I’ll start with the first theory, the second may have to wait until next time (hey! Romeo and Juliet’s on tonight and I still have to write an expiatory letter to the Sacred Chicken, so she knows what to do with all this stuff.). The thing that struck me about this was the desperation of it. It was thought up at the time that all the evidence about dinosaurs was coming out. Suddenly people were realising there was life before the creation, not only that but the Earth was much older than creation theory would let it be. The entire basis of their beliefs was beginning to crumble. If God created the world in 5000 BC (?) as the bible states, then where did all the older material come from? The answer is apparent and entirely understandable. To compare this situation to modern literature, it is not indifferent to the situation at the end of ‘Whit’ by Iain Banks, where the members of the cult are forced to either see their religion as a farce or continue to believe in something they know to be founded on a lie. Would you be able to accept this change in thought openly, say oops how silly of me to believe in creation and switch to the other side? Or would you cling to your beliefs for all you were worth?
Personally, I don’t think I’d be able to just reject everything I’ve ever believed in at the drop of a scientific discovery, although I’d be much more prone to doubt the science than conjure up elaborate to describe it all away. I suppose I’m fortunate to have such a vague belief system, in this respect. I always say I believe in everything, but it’s not that, I just don’t disbelieve anything. God? Yup, he’s up there. Fortune telling? That works. Horoscopes? Them too. Aliens? They’re up there, but not in the same place as God. Fairies? They live down the garden (along with the Poddington Peas). People communicating with animals? Can’t disbelieve in something I practice (M can verify that.). Reincarnation? I want to be a wolf. The Greek Gods? Sure, they’re in their clouds shagging their brothers and trying to kill each other.
Having said all that, I’m not too big on evolution or creation. Evolution has too many coincidences and creation is a little too organised. There must be a little random chance in the world. But there must be order too. I had a discussion with M and Muldoon once about fate once. M doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in destiny, that place in life we’re meant to end up, which everything in our lives is pushing us towards. Myself, I’m more of a fatalist, everything in life is planned, can be predicted and leads us towards our destiny. Muldoon hates both theories. He says we form our own destiny and fates removes all the chance out of life, all the excitement. But I couldn’t disagree more. While Muldoon carefully plans every move in his life, making sure that he’s going to make himself the best destiny he can, I just do whatever, knowing if I fail or succeed, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just fate leading me to wherever I’m meant to be. So, you may be wondering where does that random element that I said must be in the world come in? Well, who’s to say that my fate knows what M’s fate is planning, or Muldoon’s, or David Duchovny’s?
I suppose I should have some kind of conclusion.
But how you take this probably depends on who you are.
If you’re a scientist, you’ll be thinking right know ‘how mad can
one person be before getting committed? There’s no way in this Earth that
there are forces which guide us, if you fail you’re a’ levels it’s because
you didn’t revise, not because you were meant for something else.’
Destinyists will be thinking, ‘Ooh, why so extreme? A few directions,
not a map book.’ And then
there’ll be a couple of people, like me, who think there’s a reason for
everything and one day everything’ll make sense.
And there’s someone sat at their computer screen nodding sagely,
thinking ‘That’s not fate, that’s the holy spirit.’
Whatever, it’s there, and if I don’t go to Newcastle it’s because I
was meant to stay here and get a job.