Many of my friends believe that because I describe myself as a Buddhist/Taoist, I must believe in almost anything: Mayan calendar, UFO abductions, astrology, telepathy and telekinesis, tarot, homeopathic medicine, Jesus as a space alien - you name it.
In fact, though, I'm fairly skeptical about almost everything. I'm constantly amazed at what people believe, from the John Birch politics and fundamentalism my ex-wife and her family embraced to the Murrah bombing conspiracy theories that still carry some currency in my part of the country to the suck-toxins-out-your-toes machines in which a couple of my friends soak their feet, paying good money to do so.
People just seem to not want to believe that things are as they are. They want to believe, or need to believe, that there is some second reality underlying the one we see.
Personally, I don't think it's there. I think the world is as it appears. If it seems mundane, that doesn't mean there's some hidden reality. It just means it's mundane.
3 comments:
::: I think the world is as it appears. :::
As it appears to WHOM?
i think it's more that you are easy to talk to....and people tell you their own beliefs without expectation of you believing or not...it is... people feel safe and do not feel you stand in judgment of them...perhaps this is incorrect and you do in fact stand in judgment... it appears...by your words you do....
I try not to judge other people's beliefs. But when someone tells me such-and-such a thing is true, I have to form some sort of conclusion as to whether I believe it myself and whether I want to let my life be influenced in some way by it.
Usually, I don't believe it, and I don't let myself be influenced by it.
As long as people aren't trying to legislate their beliefs into law and force me to live by them, I don't care what they believe themselves.
Post a Comment