The Head and the Heart

I am equally amused and disgusted by how intelligent, well-read, educated people can consider their opinions to be so innovatively unique, while being so unfailingly predictable. I always enjoy reading articles written about religion in the New York Times or Washington Post. Whether the article itself is good or bad, the comments that follow will take the same trajectory, time and time again. First, it will begin with a lengthy comment on how religion is antithetical to reason. The comments will begin harmlessly and with a civil tone, and will slowly acquire an air of condescension. How can these simple-minded fools believe there is something beyond what we now know? Finally, this will devolve into full-scale assault. To have any faith in the unseen is to perpetuate atrocities; religion is war, it is racism, it is everything that is wrong now and ever has been wrong with human existence.

I am not totally unsympathetic to these screeds. Believe it or not, there are some of us out there who can examine religion with a critical eye, while still falling under the umbrella of the religious. To say that religion has been the underlying cause of war is not incorrect. However, wherever a group of people share a system of beliefs and hold them in high esteem - when they are threatened, conflict arises. Is fighting a war for the security of a country more justifiable? Just because the cause being defended is American instead of godly, does it make it less deadly? To say that religion leads to war because prior wars have been fought over religious ideals is a fallacy of composition – war is fought over religion only when a religion (or anything else) is elevated to a national ethos.

Hence, the importance of the separation of church and state. I value both church and state. Many believe this exists in our Constitution for the protection of the state. It absolutely does. I also believe it exists for the protection of worship. I fully realize that there are some in this country who want to imbue the laws with their extremist brand of “Christianity,” which when examined, is often opposed to many tenets of Christianity. (Another topic altogether.) I cringe when I hear, for instance, about a Texas Republican who denies the existence of rapid climate change and instead asks constituents to only pray for rain. But believing that we are all just easily pacified idiots is being short-sighted.

The online commentors frequently attempt to argue the value of atheism and the failures of religion with the same, or greater, enthusiasm as a preacher in a tent revival. This, I cannot understand. First of all, many of the religious adhere to science and reason as much as the atheists or agnostics. The two do not have to be in opposition. (In my opinion, they aren’t.) In addition to a temporal knowledge, religion provides spiritual knowledge. (Or, it should) We cannot, and should not, argue about the validity or invalidity of faith. I hear repeatedly that this faith in the unseen is illogical. As if I don’t realize that. While I would encourage anyone to employ reason in evaluating religion, you won’t be able to attest to the truth of any of it by that alone. I know I can’t prove anything to you; neither can you definitively disprove me. We lack the same frame of reference from which to even engage in a valid argument on the subject.

I try not to support my positions on personal experience, but in the realm of spirituality – it may be the only way. After not practicing any kind of religion or spirituality for the better part of ten years, I threw up a Hail Mary kind of prayer during a particularly dark time. More or less like, if you’re there – I’d like to know. Well, I knew. That desperate little prayer was answered pretty directly. (Happy to share the details on a more personal level.) If you would have given me some anecdotal quip like this five or six years ago , I would have said – “Oh, bless your heart. Would you like some more Kool-Aid? Perhaps a purple shroud and a pair of Nikes?” But I knew this was more than coincidence because of the way I felt - a really powerful feeling that I can’t explain to you, and I can’t prove its existence to you in any tangible way. I think we all might have had a similar feeling in different ways and through different mediums. For instance, when I was in college – I got the same feeling in my choir when we performed Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. It can’t be explained, it has to be felt – and it certainly can’t be argued because words are inadequate. It’s just some kind of internal gauge of what is enduringly beautiful and true, rather than fleeting excitement.

There’s the head and the heart. You can govern your actions with one or the other. When you learn to use both, then you’re really on to something. Believe Me. Or don’t. But let’s not argue about it.