Bear in mind: Dave Dight’s Thought for the Week
‘Our behaviour is no longer fit for purpose.’
The human brain is possibly the most complex object in the universe – with it we out-competed other hominins. It gives us frameworks for meanings, including belief systems. These in turn offer coherence to our lives, and give rules for social organisation. But they also provide solutions to existential concerns by positing a transcendent, benign, timeless reality that is only accessible on belief. Believers can get upset when this is challenged or exposed.
Beliefs, as expressed in language, often aren’t originally our own. Language orders thoughts. Words simplify, confine, compartmentalise and categorise experience. They are useful in communication but are also cognitive straitjackets. As the elders of Balby remembered in 1656, ‘the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life’. Similarly, religious beliefs (contrary to spirituality) define, label and divide people into groups, often claiming sole access to ‘truth’. Competition between groups amplifies this, reinforcing separation and enmity.
Zen Buddhism radically challenges language, arguing that the deeper meanings of words lies in the spaces between them. Like life, this reality is impermanent and dynamic: there are no objects, only relationships; no events, only processes – and no compulsory beliefs. In contrast, attachments cause great suffering, especially the pernicious delusion of being a separate, permanent self. Quakers might say there’s only one Mind, and that we’re all fragments of it. Silently contemplating the ‘inward light’, receptive minds flow together, beyond beliefs. This love can’t be adequately expressed, only realised and lived.
Recently on these pages (19 August), Neil Morgan asked if a tree is worthy of reverence. Jesus said: ‘Lift the stone, you will find me there.’ Meaning: with effort, surprising truth is revealed. Plants transform sunlight into energy while generating vital oxygen. This process evolved over three billion years, powering all terrestrial life and linking astronomy with biology. It’s but one complex system among myriads. These are exquisitely regulated, operating harmoniously with daily and seasonal rhythms. The more they are examined, the more their complexity, interconnectivity and sophistication is revealed. We can marvel at this, or we can exploit it. As the apex predator, we confuse competitive dominance with adaptive fitness. Competition, now between us, gives new, urgent and self-inflicted existential threats, like weaponry and climate change. Our behaviour is no longer fit for purpose.
Jesus also said: ‘The truth will set you free’, from delusion to self-realisation. Responsibility must balance power. Spirituality encourages integrity.
Beliefs have their place, but not in science. Like children, scientists play with ideas and theories. Theories develop and grow. The quest for understanding is endless. Personally, I’d rather my mind is opened by wonder than closed by belief.
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