Lovefool

September 14th, 2020

Our universe is full of systems that help us in the suffering of being human, and only a fool would discount a single one.

I’ve mentioned before a series of lectures I’ve been reading, and it’ll be the basis for a lot of the stuff I’ll be writing about. It’s called The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, and it’s a scientific and psychological look at how religion works.

It’s dope. It’s old (published in 1902). It’s relevant. And it’s positively changing some (and without doubt confirming some) of my understanding of how we work.

It ultimately comes down to our systems. Science is about experimentation and results; religion, too, is often about the results. With that in mind, we can’t discount one without discounting the other. As James brilliantly puts it:

“The first thing to bear in mind is that nothing can be more stupid than to bar out phenomena from our notice, merely because we are incapable of taking part in anything like them ourselves.”

If you get cancer, you will likely need a secular medical system to help you. Use that. If you get a broken heart, no doctor may be able to help, but praying might. Use that, too.

I wrote in The Weirdos: “The universe is bigger than God.” This is exactly one of the ways I meant. Not that a God may or may not exist; but that there are an infinite amount of possibilities, and room for each one.

Keep that in mind before you draw lines between fields. Letting them share your landscape could be the healthiest way of all to live.