What Should I Believe? (Part 4)

Subtitle:  Do You Believe in the Supernatural?

I tend to believe that the stars and planets have as much influence on my life as the entrails of goats.  Of course it's fun to imagine that our horoscopic sign, the year we were born, or our Myers-Briggs type can tell us something new and interesting about ourselves.

It's equally fun to do a Tarot reading for a friend.  Based on my knowledge of symbolism, I can suggest a path for my friend to follow, a path that one could say arises from the chosen cards.  In fact, my own desires for the other person's future and my intuition about their current life propel the interpretation as much as the pictures in the cards.  Both the Hanged Man and the Devil speak with one mouth:  mine.

In truth, I abandoned mysticism long ago.  My paranormal experiences continue to wait for a scientific explanation.  I can also live with the absence of explanation.  I don't need to understand everything.  Given the human brain's current capacity, there will always be mysteries.  Maybe the Global Brain can eventually solve them.

Even though I do not believe in horoscopes at all, my newspaper's horoscope column seemed to know that I was fond of questions.  Here's what it had to say about my birthday last August:

"If today is your birthday, the answers you get depend on the questions you choose to ask, so ask only those that are positive and uplifting over the coming year.  How can you change your life for the better?  How can you change the world for the better?  The answers will come."

The answers usually depend on the questions, birthday or not.  "How can I change my life for the better?" will lead your thoughts into a more productive place than "Why am I such a loser?"  The book Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, by Merilee Adams discusses how to use questions to improve our lives.  I don't know whether my birthday horoscope came from the stars or from the self-help shelf of a bookstore - maybe both.

Do you believe in invisible or supernatural forces?  Do you need to explain the unexplainable?

Why Questions?

Today, a friend asked me:  "Of all the possible areas of fascination, why are you blogging questions, particularly open-ended questions?"

1.  Questions open conversations - How are you?

2.  Open-ended questions offer possibilities.  Questions with single answers seem to invite avoiding and dissembling.


Even in the Bible, we see problems with single-answer questions.  In Genesis 3: 9-11, God asks Adam three questions, "Where are you?"; "Who told you that you are naked?"; and "Have you eaten of the tree...?"  Note - Adam's first response is to hide from the question.  His second response is to blame the woman.

In Genesis 4:9, God asks Cain, "Where is your brother?"  Cain also avoids giving a direct answer and instead asks another question, "Am I my brother's keeper?


3.  Questions force me to think about everything I don't know.  Questions help me peer into the the mystery and diversity of other sentient beings.

4.  Questions bring out the child in us - the wondering child who asks:  Where do babies come from?  Why is the ocean blue?  Where does the sun go at night?

5.  Science is based on questions.  Scientists ask questions about the nature of the world.  Nothing is taken for granted.  Nothing is assumed.

On this blog, I've written on 97 questions (so far).  I also keep a long list of questions to be dealt with at some point.  These include

• Why does teamwork go horribly wrong?
• Are all actions political?
• The giant hole in the backyard - is that yours?
• Have I overthrown my own tyranny?
• Does this stress make me look fat?
• Does thinking help?

and many others.  What are your big questions?  I'll add them to the list.

"Why?"

The media say that the FBI are searching for a motive for the Aurora, Colorado massacre.  "Why?" is a frequently asked question, number five on the five w's list:  who, what, when, where, why.  Answers to the whys of human behaviour, though, tend to be speculative.  DNA or other evidence will often help nail down who, what, when, where, and even how, but give no hints to why.

If we knew why random, senseless atrocities occurred, we could predict them and stop them before they happened.  But I suspect there is no why.  Perhaps the shooter will offer a reason besides "I'm the joker," but even an explanation given by the perpetrator will not create a satisfying why.  Nonetheless, we would very much like one.  This article suggests that needing an explanation seems wired into the brain:

BEHAVIOR; Mind Fills The Need To Explain

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/health/behavior-mind-fills-the-need-to-explain.html

"While mapping the brain, they [neurophysiologists] were amazed to find that when the area responsible for an emotion was electronically stimulated, subjects experienced the mechanically induced feeling, then instantly came up with reasons for their responses."

Many people will come up with a why.  We need to, but I suspect events like the Montreal Massacre, the Columbine massacre, and the tragedy in Aurora ultimately arise from the unique experiences and chemistry of the shooters.  Perhaps it would be more helpful to examine, question, and circumscribe the how.
 

Are Plants Safe?

There are no stupid questions, they say.  I try to remember this, since I am asked many questions.  I know that the question gives me information about the mind and life experience of the asker.  For example, a seemingly bright engineering student once asked me, "Why do Jews boycott Christmas?"

(I explained that in Judaism there are holidays for non-human birthdays, such as Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of the trees, and Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of creation, but that the religion doesn't normally commemorate human birthdays.)

I had a tenant some years ago, a medical student at McMaster University.  She had an undergraduate degree - probably in the sciences, probably in biology.  It was late fall and I told her I'd be moving some of the flowering outdoor plants into the house.  She asked, "Is it safe?"

At first I thought this was a very stupid question.  Was she so disconnected from nature that she imagined houseplants might kill us?

Yet, she probably DID have a science degree and would soon be a doctor - and there was that time a few years back when trees were taking out celebrity skiers.  She might have feared the mutant killer geraniums, or merely figured that plants had a reason to be angry.

Can a Question Change Your Life?

A question changed mine.  I used to be involved in community radio.  After a show one night in the 1980s, the guests - a gang of artists - and the producers and hosts of the show went for a drink in the student pub.  One of the artists sat next to me, looked me squarely in the eyes, and asked me this question:  "Is there any passion in your life?"  I believe he meant outside of radio.  He had tapped into my carefully concealed Restless Longing.  My life changed at that moment.  It started with a question.

I've heard this from others - that the right question at the right time has changed lives.

Warsaw, 1898:  My grandfather, a teenager, was considered a genius in his studies of Torah and Talmud.  He met a man who engaged him in conversation.  The man asked him this question:  "Can you prove the existence of God?"  This question led him to give up the religious life and become engaged with the secular world.  He traveled to Berlin where he lived and studied with a philosopher.  He participated in the 1905 Russian Revolution, was sent to Siberia, escaped, travelled to England and Africa, and eventually joined Trotsky in Zurich shortly before the 1917 Russian Revolution.  It started with a question.

Why Do I Believe What I Believe?

When asked to explain his success, Arno Penzias, 1978 Nobel Prize winner for physics, said "Change starts with the individual.  So the first thing I do each morning is ask myself, 'Why do I strongly believe what I believe?'  Constantly examine your own assumptions."    from "The Art of Powerful Questions" (see www.theworldcafe.com toolkit) 

We choose our beliefs (e.g. love is better than anger, hope is better than fear), but can we always logically justify why we believe it?  Everything we believe has a source - our upbringing, education, or culture form the categories through which we process our experiences.  To even answer that question, we are subject to assumptions contained in the language of our inquiry.  Assumptions within assumptions, mirrors within mirrors.

No wonder many people need to find some firm footing in a pre-existing belief system or they would feel like Alice falling through the rabbit hole.

What's the Best Birthday Present Ever?

Last year my brother asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  I told him that I'd like to meet him somewhere for coffee or whatever and for him to ask me three questions.

His first question was about my spousal unit and led to a discussion of our relationship.  His second question was "What did you learn this year?"
His third question was "Where do you find peace in the heart?"

If you do not want more stuff, then interesting questions, close attention to the answers, and thoughtful responses can also be wonderful gifts.

                         

Should I Leave the House?

Yes, you never know what might happen.

I was coaxed to leave the house yesterday and go hear The Sultans of String - a charming three-person band playing music from Lebanon to Cape Breton Island.  The music was delightful, but the outing became more delightful when I began chatting with a young man at the next table.  I asked him whether he thought music answered questions, and we got to talking about questions in general.  He opened his notebook and showed me the entry he had made that very morning:  "What are my biggest questions right now? - or if not the biggest, then the next biggest?" and underneath, "Where is my next inspiration going to come from?"

I told him I was working on this question:  "What else is disappearing?"
He said, "This is disappearing."
"What?"
"Conversation."

He said piercingly, "Would you mind if I started my own book of questions - or would that be stealing?

"Everyone should have their own questions," I replied. 

What Questions Does Harry Potter Answer?

In the April 10, 2011, New York Times Book Review, a writer asked the question:  Why are vampire books and Harry Potter books so popular among young people?  The author, Dana Stevens, said that pre-teen and teenage readers are "poised between the powerless dependence of childhood and the frighteningly unmoored freedom of adult life."  Books in which children harness otherworldly powers to vanquish cosmic evil answer their most urgent questions.  Stevens says these questions are 

1.  What is my destiny?
2.  How can I know the extent, and limit, of my powers?
3.  Do the moral choices I make really matter?

I recall asking a version of those questions when I was younger.  Some of us try to develop our powers and create our destiny.  Others let destiny decide for them (or think they do).  We make large and small moral decisions every day.  They always matter.  Those decisions determine our character and set up the circumstances that lead to our next decision.

Another review in the same issue of the NYTBR said that books for children 3-7 asked these questions:  "Is there anything good about being small?"  and "Will I ever be as good as the big kids?"

My question:  What's with book reviewers saying that books ask (and answer) questions?
My answer:  Questions are everywhere, like math, physics, and love.