Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sutapa das
In our modern world, we have many different terms which act as subtle put-downs for practitioners of religion or spirituality. Recently someone referred to me as a 'man of faith'. I thought that was quite interesting. Factually speaking, everyone in this world has faith in something - without it you couldn't function as a progressive being. If we refuse to place our faith in a spiritual tradition, we simply repose it elsewhere.In a recent conversation with the same person I expressed that there have been numerous archaeological findings over the last century that are challenging our understanding of the history of humankind. His response? He didn't ask what the research was, who conducted it, when it was published, how reliable it is and how he could find out more. Rather, he categorically denied the claim, making sweeping statements that such evidence couldn't possibly exist. People are very cautious not to blindly believe in anything, but isn't such a demonstration of blind doubt just as dangerous?
The fact is, blind anything is bad. To accept or reject something are both acts that should be performed with due intelligence and discrimination. In today’s world certain theories and worldviews are accepted as irrefutable, undisputed scientific fact, whereas anything which smells of spirituality is treated with incredible suspicion and doubt from the very onset. We may be very careful not to blindly believe, but we may neglect invaluable wisdom, knowledge and insight into the world due to the tendency towards blind doubt.
