Friday, November 25, 2011

The Illusion of Belief

By Steve Rensberry

Does life exist beyond the grave?
Do the eyes lie?
Meaning. Truth. Purpose.
What are they but the mind reaching out?
When you pick up a rock, you know it's a rock.
But you are, alas, a construct-creating entity.
An amalgam of ambiguous forces.
A desire in search of belief.
A framework in need of reinforcement.
So that rock can be anything you want.
A sign. A symbol. A tool.
A deity transformed.
Manifested in all its prophetic glory.
The mind embraces belief like a criminal embraces a scapegoat.
Contingent belief?
Temporary belief? Suspended belief?
Belief in a possibility? A probability?
Not in a million years.
Not in a lifetime.
A mind in need needs belief of eternal proportions.
It needs totality. It needs absolutes.
It needs the physiological release that comes only from total justification.
To sanctify its existence.
To create for itself that which cannot be manifest.
To make the impossible real.
It is not evidence the mind needs but a simple green light.
An all-encompassing reason.
Reality. Facts. Evidence.
What are they really but concepts?
A choice?
Eyed through the lens of subjective interpretation.
Beaten into submission by an infinite ego.

Carl Sagan on God, Faith and Religion

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