C³

Once I overheard a conversation in a bus. Usually I am not interested to listen to words that are not  addressed to me personally. But this one grabbed my attention because it was . .. .  quite  unusual and about a challenging topic.

I am driving in the bus, just immersing myself in nothing when I hear  a woman (whose face I couldn’t see, since they were sitting behind me) asking her neighbour:  . . . . . and do you believe in God? And he answered: What do you need God for? – Well, what do you mean? She replied slightly annoyed. Isn’t anybody interested in God? – Not me, he said.- Are you an atheist then? she asked. -  No, he replied curtly.-  But you must believe in something! her excitement wasn’t a sign of pleasure. – Why? he asked her, why do I need do believe in something? – Aren’t you interested in some kind of explanation how the world came about? – Not much, no, he said quietly. – Short silence. The woman obviously tried to tame her confusion. – But most people want to know, she started again. – Maybe less than you think, he said, and surely I’m not one of them.

– Ah, she said, so you believe in the Big Bang and evolution! She seemed to be happy about her newly found reasoning. – Oh no, he said, then I probably would prefer God. Its so much more comforting than a Big Bang. But let me ask you a question. What do you need God for? Or the Big Bang for that matter? – Like I said before, she said, don’t we all want a reason for our being here? Don’t we all want to know where we come from? Religion and science seem to follow the same question, just that they find different answers, she suggested.- You always start with an assumption, he said, I am not too interested in an assumption on which I build a ritualized believe or a vast constructed theory. I love the flow of life. I study it. I study myself. I grow.  I find many assumptions inside myself and I do my best to let them all go. That keeps me rather busy. I have questions, too, that is true. Actually more and more. – Like what, asked the woman, now interested. – Well, why do we need a first beginning? Why all this effort when it seems to me that our thinking and feeling is clouded with so many patterns, assumptions, prejudices, concepts, theories and what not that it is hardly likely we find out anything pure. And pure it must be, just think about the attributes you give to your God: omnipotent, omnipresent, always loving everybody and everything etc. Sounds pure to me. Now then, either you believers are all pure, omnipotent, omnipresent and so forth. Because if not: what are you talking about? How can you argue with something unthinkable like ‘omnipresence’ or ‘omnipotence’? Did you or any pope or priest experience that ever, not to mention on an ongoing everlasting level? If not, what are you talking about?-

The woman was surprised about this quite elaborate speech. But more than about the sermon she was surprised about the questions he raised. She had never thought about it that way. Never questioned her believe. Just had taken it for granted. That’s what she had been taught by her parents. That’s what she had learned in school.

And what about the Big Bang? she asked.- I have a question for the scientists: where does the Big  Bang come from? he said. But I also have a theory, actually one that could be proven. I don’t think it is very important to prove anything because I believe in experiences, but I tell you anyway. My theory is that certain humans exploit the insecurity of many of their Fellow Humans. Many humans seem to want a safe and secure life. Against all experience this need is filled again and again by people who tell them they know something for sure. That is re-assuring to many. The risk those many take is that they are controlled by exactly those few first-cause-developers who can never prove this cause. That is why they want you to believe in it, meaning: in them.

The woman fell silent. Her disappointment was palpable. Then she blurted out: You are just one of those cynics! You don’t believe in anything because you are frustrated to the bone! –

One could hear a friendly chuckle. Then the man said: As I said before, I love life in all its forms and appearances. Cynics don’t love, as far as I am concerned.- I have to go, was the last thing the man and me heard from the woman when the bus stopped.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 12:17 am and is filed under Consciousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.