Hope
Hope is looking forward to something with confidence.
There is of course the benign sort of hope that the bus will come a few minutes early, or that your cake is still in the fridge. But I am referring to something more consequential; say, the hope in justice. The hope that love and life are worth fighting for – the hope that something bigger is going on here. That, despite being surrounded by lightyears of formless vacuum, we aren’t lost and alone in it.
It’s hard living life without that sort of hope, but sometimes it’s harder to live with it. The sheer magnitude of suffering found on this planet – a mere speck of the galaxy, and that a mere speck of the universe – is almost unimaginable. Three children have starved to death as you were reading this. Somewhere, someone was diagnosed with cancer. Another lost their house, another their beloved. Beyond tragedies, which – though they cut us deeply – will heal, many struggle with the enduring experience of being pressed against the enormous, unfixable void: loneliness, lack of opportunity, war, poverty, despair. Sometimes it seems that all we can hope for is to be a stepping stone to a better world for people in the future. But even then, isn’t satiety just as crushing a struggle as adversity?
There are some who, based on philosophical study, decide that the existence of something greater – some answer – is unlikely. But they aren’t the majority. The vast majority know very little about the idea of God. The true majority are people who perhaps believe and perhaps do not, but are too exhausted to bother with it very much. So, most go through life without following the doctrines of any church or creed (even when they nominally belong to one). They instead follow the doctrine of “maybe, maybe not.”
This doctrine has a few key elements. First, God might be there, but you shouldn’t do anything too serious about that because you might look silly. Second, God isn’t so special, He’s just the biggest thing around. Third, He’s probably not all that interested in us anyway. Fourth, He is slightly more likely to be interested in us when something bad happens – that’s when you might try praying. Fifth, don’t be a serial killer and you’re sure to have a pleasant afterlife in any case.
But is that all that’s going on? We are left here alone, on a wild goose chase for a creator who either doesn’t exist or cares little for us? Our only hope is a great, shadowy silhouette? Is that really the most plausible scenario, or is it just easy to accept because it can’t let us down?
The answer matters, because what we hope for changes how we live.
Sanity
Sanity is acting rationally in response to reality.
Now, the majority of men are those who do claim to hope in some sort of transcendence, some higher purpose, some spiritual good or enlightenment, and yet couldn’t possibly spend less time and mental energy on that fact than if they didn’t. This sort always has some hobby to keep them occupied, which they could spend all day telling you all about – naming all of the sports players in their chosen league, arguing over the brilliance of some TV show or movie, or rushing to get to the bar in time for happy hour. But when asked about their progress towards peace, spiritual enlightenment, perfection or eternal happiness, the answer is something like, “I’m not too concerned about that; I’m a good person, basically.” This is no less insane than a man carelessly chasing a dollar bill blowing in the wind, ignoring the winning lottery ticket in his hand.
There are others who do not profess to hope in the transcendent. In this instance, there is no higher good, absolute truth, nor objective order. That means you are responsible for you; you are your own good and your own order and your own purpose. The only sane response to that, of course, is to do whatever you want. “The moral code of [one’s] own sympathies and his antipathies.” Fortunately, most humans have a much stronger desire to live in society than they do to commit crimes, so man generally uses this supreme sovereignty to make choices about car colors and cereal brands. However, if doing as you please is the only true form of sanity, then what if I do want to commit criminal activity? If I want to commit theft and I am the arbiter of good, then this act of theft is good (because I want to). Or, if I am born with a psychosexual compulsion to murder, then this act of murder is good (because I want to). Of course, other people could put a stop to this behavior using force, but that’s just them exercising their sovereign right to do as they please as well, which would be good (because they want to). This is all logically coherent, but unless we’re willing to say that murder is at worst a social faux pa, it doesn’t seem sane. There is, of course, another possibility: we are not the highest source of order, so anyone behaving as if they are is not acting rationally – they are insane.
Finally, there is a small group of the truly religious, who claim to hope in the transcendent and actually act like it. The truly religious person is certainly acting rationally in this capacity; it would be insane to refuse the sacrifice of any temporal good whatsoever for the sake of transcendence, be it wealth or power or pleasure or honor or whatever else attracts man’s heart for a fleeting moment. However, much like the hopeless man in the previous example, there remains a problem: what if your religion or an angel or someone with unquestionable spiritual authority asks you to, say, perform an act of terrorism? On the one hand, the only sane thing to do is follow the framework of your belief system. However, you could still be mistaken in one of two ways: you may be right about there being a transcendent order, but you may be interpreting it wrong, which would mean insanity. Or, perhaps you are entirely wrong and there is no transcendent order at all – in that case, you are your own good and your own order after all, so acting on the spiritual authority of another is also insanity.
The Importance of Being Right
From these examples, it is clear that sanity requires two things of us. First, we must act in accordance with what we believe. But second, what we believe must be in accordance with reality.
This is no trivial matter. One must be as certain as possible that their course of action is correct, otherwise they risk living their entire life in a state of incurable insanity. What could be worse? Surely, having some measure of certitude on the meaning of life is of the utmost importance, since this topic encapsulates the whole of life, not just a portion? Doesn’t the journey require more attention than any particular path within it? It would be insane to prioritize some other field of study before this one.
But how do we determine what’s right so we can live in harmony with it? This is normally the part where someone says, “open your heart to Allah,” or, “begin to put your faith in Jesus,” but those answers are deeply unsatisfying to anyone who hasn’t already made up their mind. I will instead say the opposite: the human heart is fickle, the human mind is prone to error of all sorts, and you would be a fool to take a leap of faith when you aren’t even sure of your footing. But that is no reason – no excuse at all – to become a defeatist. This is no trivial matter, and not-choosing is a choice.
My Answer
The menu bar at the top of the site has three sections.
The first is an analysis of God. I’ve made this section because God – real or not – is not treated with much respect these days. Many are taught that God is a superstitious frivolity of the past, think we can’t know of God with any sort of certitude, and consequently reject all such ideas without a diligent attempt to understand them. I only posit that this great and terrible idea and the reasoning behind it deserves to at least be properly understood before being rejected. And that is my aim – to share a proper understanding of this idea so many great minds have found compelling.
The second is an analysis of all the world’s belief systems, categorized under umbrellas. Often, even those of us who think there’s “something out there” fall into a paralysis looking at the thousands and thousands and thousands of religious options. People just assume that there’s not much more reason to pick this religion than that one, and – feeling no particular attachment to one or the other – don’t. But I came to a happy discovery throughout my years of studying philosophy and history. Most religions have serious, fundamental contradictions which simply exclude them from plausibility. There is not, in fact an enormous landscape of equally valid beliefs to choose from.
The third examines certain topics in the spiritual life which often confuse people. Suppose you believe in God – why pray? Is prayer just asking for your car keys when they’re missing? How can free will coexist with an omnipotent God? This section is probably best to read after the other two.
You may not agree with all of my ideas, but hopefully you leave here a little more hopeful, and maybe a little more sane.
Enjoy.