The Israelites made fun of other nations\u2019 religions for making graven\u00a0images \u2013 at least once they themselves stopped making them. Paul said that for Christians neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters \u2013 at least once he himself stopped persecuting Christians. Women being property is stupid stuff \u2013 but is it also stupid to cling to any remnant of a morality or legislation that emerged from that same cultural context and the same assumptions? Many Christians would regard the Westboro Baptist Church\u2019s stuff\u00a0as \u201cstupid stuff,\u201d\u00a0some of them\u00a0in turn being condemned by more progressive Christians for\u00a0sharing the same view of\u00a0homosexuality as Fred Phelps and differing only on what\u00a0they say and\u00a0do about it.\u00a0Meanwhile, those progressive Christians will be viewed with disdain by atheists for clinging to that \u201cstupid stuff\u201d about God,\u00a0and those same atheists might be ridiculed by other atheists for still clinging to old fashioned notions of love, or morality, or free will, or other such \u201cstupid stuff.\u201d\u00a0And then\u00a0others would regard debates about whether God exists or what morality is as \u201cthe stupid stuff.\u201d There are people who are starving, people who are living under tyrrany, and from this perspective the only thing that isn\u2019t \u201cstupid stuff\u201d is doing something about it. <\/p>\n
We all think there is stupid stuff that we can dismiss. But the question we do not ask often enough is how<\/em> we determine what \u201cthe stupid stuff\u201d is. Reason is certainly part of the picture at least some of the time. But I think many would acknowledge that there is a lot more to it than that, and in some cases it isn\u2019t clear that rationality can decide that prticular issue. But maybe my thinking that is \u201cstupid stuff\u201d that I\u2019ll eventually change my mind about. Or maybe it\u2019s the other way around. But certainly there have been life-changing experiences which have turned unbelievers into believers, and life-changing experiences which have changed believers into unbelievers.<\/p>\n Changing our mind about what is stupid and what isn\u2019t is part of human experience. As we grow and mature, we change, and this is not only common but normal and healthy. One thing seems clear to me at this stage. Few if any of us can simply sit on our own thinking in a corner somewhere and grow in maturity. In my view, the one thing that is clearly \u201cstupid stuff\u201d is when we either isolate ourselves, or surround ourselves with only like-minded people who will always reinforce our beliefs and practices, and never challenge them. Most of us are aware that we are shaped by society, and yet most of us think society could change for the better. No matter who we are, we need interaction with others to help us to grow, mature, and leave \u201cstupid stuff\u201d behind. We need the perspective of others to draw our attention to\u00a0\u201cstupid stuff\u201d\u00a0in our blind spots. Perhaps the most important thing is to keep talking. So let\u2019s talk about \u201cthe stupid stuff\u201d!<\/p>\n The title of this blog entry is a phrase that came up in Sunday school yesterday. We were continuing our discussion of Leviticus 19 and the question of why we do some things the Bible says but not others. The suggestion was made that we should preserve the valuable stuff but discard or ignore \u201cthe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-8321198056013034318?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")