we are the only society that both believes in witchcraft and doesn\u2019t believe in it, and I\u2019d like to keep it that way.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\nThe human desire for certainty comes from two sources. The first is binary thinking. This is the evolutionary adaptation that made it possible for our pre-human and early human ancestors \u2013 at least some of whom did not have language and language-influenced thought processes \u2013 to quickly distinguish between friend and foe, predator and prey, balm and bane. Nuanced analysis was a luxury primitive humans simply didn\u2019t have time for \u2013 they needed quick black and white answers, not shades of gray that might take minutes or hours to consider. When you spot movement in the trees, you\u2019d better decide \u201cpredator or prey\u201d very quickly. Guess wrong one way and you go hungry. Guess wrong the other way and you\u2019re removed from the gene pool.<\/p>\n
Ten thousand years of civilization and its complexities have not come close to overriding several million years where binary thinking was essential. We still like to classify everything as right\/wrong, good\/bad, hot\/cold, helpful\/harmful and so on. That\u2019s one of the reasons \u201cin between\u201d times like sunrise and sunset are considered magical. They\u2019re neither day nor night \u2013 our left-brain, conscious binary thinking can\u2019t handle the ambiguity and breaks down (obviously this is a partial breakdown, not a total one), opening us to right-brain, unconscious thinking and the magic it brings.<\/p>\n
True magical thinking (as opposed to the pleasant but impossible fantasies referred to when \u201cmagical thinking\u201d is used as an insult) requires turning off the binary impulse and opening up to a wide range of possibilities. But that\u2019s another post for another time.<\/p>\n
The second reason we want certainty is that we want to build for the future. Our evolutionary impulses tell us to live for today because we may be dead tomorrow. If we\u2019re going to sacrifice the present for some future benefit, we want to be sure our sacrifice isn\u2019t in vain.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re going to plant crops, you\u2019d like to know there\u2019s going to be a harvest. If you\u2019re going to invest time and effort in building a house, you\u2019d like to know that it\u2019s not going to be washed away in next Spring\u2019s floods. If you\u2019re going to forsake all others and make a lifetime commitment to one partner, you\u2019d like to know that partner is always going to be there for you.<\/p>\n
Some religions combine the two desires. They propose that your present life determines your eternal fate, and then present that eternal fate as a binary proposition. If you think your only possibilities are eternal bliss or eternal torment you\u2019d really like to be sure you made the right choice.<\/p>\n
But where in the Universe do you see certainties? Drought, disease and insects can kill your crops. The Nile may flood every year (or at least it did before Nasser dammed it), but some rivers are fine for decades, then overflow. I don\u2019t think I need to quote divorce statistics.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t even be certain when someone moves from \u201cliving\u201d to \u201cdead.\u201d When breathing stops? When the heart stops? When brain activity stops? We can\u2019t be certain when life begins, either, which is one of the stickiest of points in the abortion debate (a subject I\u2019m resisting writing on).<\/p>\n
If we can\u2019t be certain about things we can observe and measure, what chance do we have to be certain about things unseen?<\/p>\n
In their understandable-but-unrealizable search for certainty, some people invoke binary thinking again and say \u201cif you can\u2019t be certain, then anything goes, and we can\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
As shown in the example given by Professor Hutton, the fact that we can\u2019t be certain what Stonehenge was used for doesn\u2019t mean you can believe anything you want about it. Some possibilities are more likely than others.<\/p>\n
Some religious beliefs are more likely than others. More importantly, some religious beliefs are more helpful than others.<\/p>\n
Do your beliefs help you live a peaceful life, or do they fill you with fear and anxiety? Do they help you live in harmony with other people and other creatures, or do they isolate you from whole segments of the world? Do they challenge you to build a better world, or do they tell you things are OK like they are? Or worse, do they tell you things would be fine if other people would quit screwing it all up?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same with UPG. Other members of your tradition may or may not accept your UPG as genuine. Members of other religions almost certainly won\u2019t. But the value of your religious experiences isn\u2019t dependent what on others think about them. It isn\u2019t dependent on whether you can be certain they\u2019re genuine. Their value is dependent on whether they are meaningful and helpful to you.<\/p>\n
Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, a Forest God is calling me. I can\u2019t be certain it\u2019s Him, but previous calls have turned out pretty well so I\u2019m going to answer this one too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The value of our religious beliefs and experiences does not come from their certainty. There is no certainty. The value of our religious beliefs and experiences comes from how well they help us live better lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":1232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[4,5,66,948,127,128],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-ronald-hutton","tag-theology","tag-uncertainty","tag-upg"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>There have been several good essays recently on the topic of unverified personal gnosis. Sam Webster started it with this piece calling UPG \u201can ugly, misguided notion.<\/a>\u201d There have been numerous responses, including this one by John Halstead<\/a> here at Patheos.<\/p>\n