Sharing Beliefs (post 18)

I have made the observation that I and most people are intentionally trying to maximize rewarding experiences.

In doing so (or attempting to do so) we come up with and employ numerous theories and strategies.  And while many of these may be unconscious or unrecognized, others are explicitly adopted and endorsed.  The type of theories and strategies one praises says a lot about who one is.

For myself, although the articulation changes, I assign great importance to strategies such as:

• Orienting one's life, as much as possible, to causes, goals and entities greater than oneself
• Striving to derive one's happiness from the happiness of others
• Searching for and pursuing overarching purpose
• Seeking fellowship and community

In this I am not unique.  Similar lists find prominent places in many different religious, philosophical and psychological programs.  Hedonists and rugged individualists may reject the above strategies, but I think most people would have at least a neutral if not positive view of them.

Among the people who most strongly agree with these statements, there are still bitter, violent disagreements over the nature of the goals, causes and purposes that people should be uniting behind.

This is ironic but it also makes sense.  People who seek unity with others are more likely to find unity with others - but only among those who hold compatible beliefs.  They are more likely to find tension with those with incompatible beliefs.

This leads us to a set of alternative choices:

1) Not holding strong opinions about our purpose, and thereby being easy to get along with, but perhaps missing out on the experience of commitment to a community or the fulfillment of greater purpose.

- or -

2) Embracing strong beliefs about our purpose and committing oneself to a cause, but thus inevitably creating tension and possibly even violence with people who disagree.

These options are clearly two ends of a spectrum, and, as foreshadowed in earlier posts, I see the optimal path as lying closer to the middle than to the extremes.  I believe is possible to find a balance where one can hold beliefs about our purpose strongly enough to help one commit to higher causes and to a community, but not so strongly that one would lose humility or that one would feel the need to hurt or to force one's beliefs on those who disagree.

Take, for example, two hypothetical people - one holds the sincere belief that science is evil, that it is literally the work of Satan, and that we should not trust scientific institutions - the other holds the sincere belief that God's purpose for us is inextricably tied to using science as a means for learning more about the world.

Both of these individuals face a very similar set of problems.  Should they share their sincere belief with others?  Or should they keep it to themselves?  If they tell others they risk triggering tension, rejection and, potentially, violence.  If they keep their belief to themselves, they may feel they are being dishonest with themselves or others.

The optimal solution would be for such individuals to share their beliefs in a way that is sensitive, venerable and respectful.  If you share your beliefs and you aren't trying to persuade or convert anyone - you are just trying to share something important about yourself - then you are not the cause of any tension, conflict or violence that may result.