CSotD: Beyond belief
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Soup to Nutz on the competitive nature of belief.
It's interesting to note that, prior to the Babylonian captivity, the First Commandment did not require the Israelites to believe there was only one god. It simply required them to worship the appropriate one for them.
If Moses had come back down the mountain and found everyone bowing down before a statue of Mickey Mouse, he'd have probably just asked them what they were doing. He didn't smash the tablets over worship of a non-existent deity, but, rather, because they had turned to the wrong deity.
So this whole "One God" belief system is another thing we can blame on the Iraqis who, it should be noted, have, in the intervening years, picked right up on both the belief itself and on the compulsion to share that peculiar analysis with all and sundry.
Rick Stromoski's timing with this strip was good, since I've just been editing two stories that involve alternative belief systems.
One was a review of a museum exhibit that includes some of what we used to call "kachina dolls" but are now known as "katsina tihu."
They appear, in this case, to be exhibited with some taste and discretion, but it still puts me in two minds, because, on the one hand, I'd like to see what a real one looks like — as opposed to those bullshit Hopi action figures they sell the tourists — but, at the same time, I kinda don't.
The one time I was invited to an Indian religious event, they made it pretty clear that there were to be no cameras and that the event was for those who were there.
Which was cool with me. Lack of belief need not translate into lack of respect.
Besides, as a recovering Catholic, I'm aware that a lot of people accuse Catholics of "worshipping statues," which misses a great deal of theology and nuance.
And I'm equally aware that a lot of Catholics worship statues. If we can't pick up on the theology and nuance ourselves, it's not surprising outsiders can't, either.
This apparently being Old Home Week at the blog, I'm reminded of another legendary professor who told of when he was hitchhiking through Greece with a friend, armed only with a guidebook and their knowledge of Classical Greek. This was in the early '20s.
They had learned that a good way to get a free meal and a place to sleep was to go to a monastery and ask to see whatever piece of art constituted that monastery's pride and joy. So they're on this island and they come to the monastery they've picked out and knock on the door.
Out comes Brother Porter with the traditional greeting of bread and salt, and they tell him they have come to see the Icon of the Blessed Madonna of Whatevertheplacewas.
He invites them in and is leading them to the chapel when another monk comes hurrying past, and the two of them talk in some rapid, modern, dialectical Greek that our intrepid pilgrims can't parse, and then the other monk hurries away and Brother Porter tells them that they can't see the Madonna right now because there is a fire threatening the monastery's olive groves.
"We'd be happy to help fight the fire," they respond, but he says it won't be necessary. Whenever there is a fire on the island, they bring out the Icon of the Blessed Madonna of Whatevertheplacewas and set it in the path of the fire and the fire goes out.
As it does in this case. After which they get to view the Icon of the Blessed Madonna, which is basically black, with a large golden circle and a smaller golden circle being all they can discern of the original image.
Which is why I don't mess with Hopi katsina/kachina dolls/tihu. As the Irish say, "I don't believe in fairies, but they're there."
Or as the backwoods country buddy of a friend said, when they were in Vietnam and odd things were going on, "I don't believes in ghosts, but, then, I don't disbelieves in them, neither."
And then there's my own theory that the reason starfish can lose an arm and then grow it back is that they aren't smart enough to know you can't do that.
Pick one.
The other happenstance is that I added a science article to this week's issue inviting the kids to vote to name the two recently discovered moons of Pluto, which you can do here.
In describing the various deities immortalized in our solar system, it wasn't necessary to be as sensitive as in the case of the Hopi, since, in this case, you probably are talking about "a religion nobody believes in anymore," but, still, when you start drawing distinctions between belief systems you need to respect and belief systems you don't need to respect, well, come on: There's no need to add words like "mythological" unless you feel you have a point you need to prove.
Which I don't, because I don't believe in any of that stuff.
But, then, I don't disbelieves in it, neither.
Anyway, the bottom line is that it's not about belief. It's about respect.
And where are we without respect?
Which was a rhetorical question, but, as a Houston Texans fan, I can actually pin it down, because twice every season, just before the Texans play the Tennessee Titans, this video emerges.
Here's exactly where we are without respect. And I don't believe this video is going to put out any forest fires:
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