WillSpirit!

This post is one in a string of essays about spirituality. It may make sense to start with the first entry in the series.

This post will discuss why faith leads to more effective choices in life. First, lets do a little review and clarification of what’s been said so far.

You’ll recall that we’re taking on the first of what I initially called ‘cornerstones,’ but then changed to ‘keys.’ They are facts that I believe can be established with no violence to science or common sense. Some are even demanded by both. If one is so inclined, these keys lead one to a place where belief in a divine presence becomes possible. They do not create faith, they just remove the sorts of blockages that keep rational people from enjoying the benefits of belief. They open a door, but it is up to us to walk through.

I did not like ‘cornerstones’ because the term hazarded suggesting my aim is to build a theology. To attempt that would be silly. I can’t tell anyone what ‘God’ is, because I don’t and can’t know. BIOPE, my clumsy acronym, serves as a list of qualities that a spiritual entity probably should possess to warrant our embracing it as a guiding force. They also happen to be qualities I believe science and common sense allow. But they should not be construed as a description of ‘God.’

It’s like saying, ‘I want to know if whales might exist. For the purposes of making that determination, I will define a whale as a mammal that lives its entire life in water, and most of its time beneath the surface. Because of this definition, I know that what I’m considering must be able to hold its breath for long periods, bear live young underwater, and nurse its offspring with milk while submerged. My goal is to decide if such a creature could exist, using known facts about mammals, the properties of air and water, etc. Even if I demonstrate that such an animal might exist, I won’t know if it actually does. And although I can put some constraints on the animal’s shape and a few other features, I can’t know exactly what it looks like or how it’s constructed.’

The ‘keys’ are truths that one can use to see how a divine presence might exist. They do not prove the existence of anything like a BIOPE, they just allow you to believe in one if you wish. Same as with the whale example, the known facts put some constraints on the nature of any divine presence, but they do not describe this putative entity beyond those limits. By the way, they also allow one to formulate a couple of testable predictions that should hold true if the hypothetical BIOPE is real. Some of these have been tested in other contexts, and provide (weak) evidentiary support for divine forces. It cannot be overemphasized that the keys are only permissive. They say a BIOPE might exist, but do not prove it. We can compare them to the facts one might use to prove the possibility of whales: mammals have the ability to close off their air passage and hold their breath; fur and/or fat would permit maintenance of body temperature even in cold water; provided the baby whale could be brought to the surface promptly, there is nothing in the birthing process that would be prevented by submersion; and so on. With enough of these, one can be pretty sure that whales are not impossible, but that does not prove their existence. The ‘keys‘ for the BIOPE function in exactly this way.

The first on the list of keys is ‘Faith Works.’ Last time I started describing the ways that faith works, and I listed three that immediately come to mind:

• By motivating effective behavior.
• By easing the pain of isolation.
• By providing meaning.

The list is not meant to be exhaustive; it would not be hard to come up with a long column of benefits that arise from faith. My list simply organizes those rewards into three large groups for the sake of discussion. The last post started off with the first item on the list: spiritual faith helps people run their lives in a way that benefits all. I used Alcoholics Anonymous as an example. In AA, the alcoholic is encouraged to seek a relationship with a ‘higher power.’ The first three of the famous twelve steps deal with accepting the existence and acceding to the care of ‘God.’ Countless AA members attest that following these guidelines has helped them make choices that were good for the course of their own lives, and for the well-being of others. It can hardly be argued that ceasing the abuse of alcohol represents a good decision by an alcoholic. Further, the decision to forgo intoxication brings emotional relief to those who care about hir (him or her.) Even more, the spiritual awakening enjoyed by AA members comes with the proviso that they ‘help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.’ Better choices abound after one embraces this ‘spiritual program of recovery.’

What is it about faith that helps baffled and frustrated alcoholics, who sometimes come into AA on the brink of bankruptcy or death, turn everything around? How is it that after trying all manner of solutions to the problem, including ‘controlled drinking,’ periods of abstinence, and promises to everyone in sight, the alcoholic who enters AA and ‘works the steps,’ can go on to stay sober for decades? Lives get rebuilt. Relationships healed. Careers reestablished. It does not work for everyone, of course, but it works for many. After 22 years in AA (I do not claim that many years of continuous sobriety, only that much exposure,) I agree with this statement from the AA ‘big book:’ “rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” The person who goes to meetings, works hard to develop a ‘spiritual program,’ and helps others, typically stays sober.

The centrality of spirituality to Alcoholics Anonymous is no accident. To a large extent, sobriety depends on developing faith that the universe cares and will help one survive. With that assurance, there is less fear, less self-hatred, and less materialistic obsession. One becomes calmer and more accepting. Obviously, the conviction that there is something very big and powerful that loves us goes a long way toward helping one settle down. I will come back to the importance of feeling loved in my next entry. But the idea that the universe wants us to thrive, and helps us, is both radical and lifesaving. And it underlies much of the improved decision-making that follows.

This kind of thinking can promote nuttiness. I’ve been in more than one AA meeting where someone claimed that ‘God’ helped them find a parking space. Belief in ‘God’ might lead to such benefits, but I doubt it. What it does do, however, is allow one to quit trying to figure everything out. The rational thought process works overtime in many of us, calculating odds, deciding amongst options, and predicting the future. Once you believe there is a ‘higher power’ assuming some of the burden, you don’t have to think so strenuously. You can relax, pray, meditate, and wait for guidance. Many good decisions come from this process.

Does there need to be an actual ‘power’ out there for this to work? ‘Trust your intuition.’ ‘What does your heart tell you?’ ‘Make a gut decision.’ We use these phrases often because letting go of strict logic and listening to the deeper, nonverbal music of the mind leads to choices that work better. If you decide who to marry solely on the basis of money, looks, and profession, you may end up in a big house with your picture in the paper, the envy of your friends. Those are the qualities the logical, egoistic self craves. Your ego will thank you. But there is no reason to expect you will be spending your life with someone you adore. The decisions that end up ‘feeling’ the best, are often the ones that linear thought scorns. It could be that the act of believing in a ‘higher power,’ the act of faith, allows the ego to take a little break, and brings the preferences of the unconscious mind to the fore. Whatever works. If it requires belief in ‘God,’ which might be nothing more than instinct, for our higher principles to have their say, then why not? (Provided our belief system does not involve condemning others, or in any way creating havoc for our companions on this planet.)

One could just listen to the heart and leave the whole ‘God’ thing out of it, right? Not really. There are so many subterranean influences in the human mind, that just listening to the ‘gut’ can be hazardous. Freud would trot out the ‘id’ at this point. How do you avoid being driven by hormonal influences that have little to do with your best interest, and much more to do with biology’s imperative to pass genes on to a succeeding generation? Do gonads care if your marriage and reputation get ruined? Not in the slightest. All they want is to make babies. Does your complex system of hormones controlling appetite care about heart disease? No. It just wants you to have abundant energy reserves in order to procreate. God, or even just the idea of it, serves to keep us on track, attending to the most elevated influences. The ones that promote health, love, and society.

The sort of ‘God’ that many westerners think vital is not necessary. We don’t need to believe in a controlling, fearsome creator. We just need guidance. Numerous Buddhist monks manage to live exemplary lives based on a spirituality that completely lacks such a God-concept. (Buddhism will need to be addressed in a future post, since it is highly relevant to my task. For now, I’ll point out that Buddhists have an expansive concept of mind, including the belief that mind transcends body and passes from one sentient being to the next free of any material vessel to carry it. This is an interesting perspective that science argues against, and that goes beyond the minimal criteria of BIOPE. However, if you leave reincarnation out of the picture, then Buddhism’s spirituality is quite supportable. The Dalai Lama obviously understands this, with his frequent forums that gather scientists and monks together for interchange and education.)

No doubt one can meditate from a secular stance, but with sincerity and solemnity, and manage to pick out the most elevated chords in the brain’s symphony. I am sure the convinced atheist can develop methods for bypassing hir ego’s base grasping, and hir hormonal appetites, and make choices from healthy frames of being. But a spiritual sense of ‘higher power’ works well as a shortcut for those who want guidance, and don’t mind believing in something mystical. For some reason, the mere belief that a transcendent consciousness is listening helps drown out the hormonal din, and guides us to our better principles. One can think of a few reasons why this might be. Perhaps it causes resonance in those buried infantile memories of wanting to please our parents. Perhaps it causes the third rail of guilt to amp up (in other words, awakens Freud’s superego.) Could it also be because there actually is a universal consciousness that helps us winnow the body’s appetites from the mind’s priorities? It could. Might it be the case that a BIOPE runs between and through us, and by listening as it vibrates our thoughts and feelings we find guidance? I think it might.

At the risk of irritating those who insist on a secular view, it is also possible that when one meditates with no belief in any higher influence whatsoever, one still gets massaged by mystical forces. Perhaps the act of sitting still and listening to the body’s hum also connects one with the harmony of the spheres. This would be as difficult to disprove as to prove.

Whether or not a BIOPE is involved, opening decision-making to forces larger than the ‘self’ brings people to good places. We don’t need the example of AA to teach us this. Long before the twelve steps, humankind knew that from time to time struggling people get in touch with something mystical, or at least mysterious, and find a better path. They find the soul’s nutrition, the fruits of faith.

***Click here for the next entry in this series.