Power of Belief

by Kasey Castleberry

This sermon was originally presented on 2013 November 10 to the congregation of Mountain Light Unitarian Universalist Church in Ellijay GA. This copy has been edited to mondusaif standards.

As Unitarian Universalists, we affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This is our fourth principle. Together we will look at the power of belief and try to understand how we can better encourage ourselves and each other in searching for what is true. First, however, I would like to share seven quotes about belief.

Thomas Fuller said:
He does not believe, who does not live according to his belief.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said:
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Norman Vincent Peale said:
The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ.

Richard Dawkins said:
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

José Bergamín Gutiérrez said:
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

Carl Jung said:
The word "belief" is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

W. C. Fields said:
Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink.

(Brainy Quotes)

Beliefs are powerful things. They are feelings of being sure that someone or something exists, and they shape our realities by informing us what is true and what is not. (Merriam Webster)

We gain our beliefs through education and life experience. From them we are supplied with the knowledge that we need to navigate our world, from the most imperative details to the most innocuous information.

For instance, did you know that daddy longlegs are the most venomous of all spiders but are harmless to humans because their fangs are too small to puncture our skins?

This little bit of misinformation exemplifies how easy it is for us to accept a belief without the slightest inclination to test its veracity.

The truth is, Daddy longlegs (also known as Harvestmen) are not even spiders, nor do they have venom glands. They are indeed archnids, but they belong to the order opiliones, while spiders belong to the order Araneae. (Wikipedia)

This and other urban myths exist because we tend NOT to examine ethnocentric beliefs. Rather than questioning something we are told, by individuals we consider part of our cultural group, we oftentimes accept what they say as a fact.

This is particularly common when it comes to religious belief. According to a 2007 Pew Research survey: "More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all." (Pew)

To put this another way, 72% of American adults never question their faith, at least not to the point of finding it inadequate for their spiritual needs. Of course, some do question their faith and find it adequate.

However, the difference between Unitarian Universalists and other faiths is that instead of presenting our congregations with what our leaders tell us are the correct answers to spiritual questions, we encourage individuals to ask their own questions and find their own answers.

Specifically, as stated in our fourth principle, we affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. But what does that really mean?

The Rev. Sunshine Jeremiah Wolfe, explains our fourth principle, in part, as follows:

Freedom means that we have the freedom to explore, contemplate, meditate, and worship in ways that make sense to us in order to make sense of the fullness of life.

Responsible means that we take into consideration what our faith means for more than just ourselves and that we consider the freedom of others as well as ourselves.

This goes back to the principle that we [offer] "encouragement to spiritual growth". In other words, we not only wish for freedom to search for truth and meaning, but we wish it for all others, as well. (Wolfe)

Simply put, Unitarian Universalists honor many different beliefs but never dogmatically. We encourage people to search for truth and meaning, not as we would have them believe it but as they, as individuals, will find and understand it for themselves.

Meister Ekhart said: "Man's best chance of finding God is to look in the place where he left him." As Unitarian Universalists, we encourage that search and even support each person's choice in defining just what the word "god" means to them personally, for we share not one but many paths.

This living tradition, that we share, draws form many sources:

Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life;

Words and deeds of prohetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;

Wisdom from the world's religions which inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life;

Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;

Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.

Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrated the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and enobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.

(Singing the Living Tradition)

Because of this broad acceptance, of so many different faith systems, some people seem to think that Unitarian Universalists can believe whatever they want. The truth, however, is that we see the benefit in examining many belief systems, not just for the sake of inclusivity but because of commonality. We understand that differing faiths need not separate us. When we look with love, we often find we have more in common than we thought.

In the 2013 Fall issue of UU World, Rev. Peter Morales said:

I am now convinced that "belief", in the way we usually use the word, is actually the enemy of faith, religion, and spirituality. Let me say that again: belief is the enemy of faith. When we dwell on beliefs we ask all the wrong questions. My faith is much more about what I love than about what I think. (Morales)

I believe that the point Rev. Morales is trying to make is that semantics can lead us to define our "beliefs" in ways that coerce even open-minded individuals into thinking dogmatically. We can then easily forget that Truth, if it is to be universal, must be living and vibrant. It must be malleable to the needs of an ever-changing community, otherwise it becomes static creed.

Our Seven Principles are stated in such a way as to remind us of our Living Tradition, to guide us toward a more responsible search for truth, not by simply reciting those wonderfully crafted words but by embracing them, by exemplifying them in our lives. Otherwise, we ask all the wrong questions and forget that our faith should be more than recited "beliefs".

In epistemology, the philosophical study of knowledge and belief, the primary problem is to understand the principles involved in discovering true knowledge or justifiable belief. This is in essence what we encourage with our fourth principle, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

To do this, we must lovingly understand that belief and knowledge are not necessarily the same thing. A belief is knowledge if the belief is true and if the believer has reasonable and plausible justification for believing it is true. (Stanford)

Of course, this makes truth an entirely personal realization. There is an important concept in sociology, known as the Thomas Theorem which explains that:

It is not important whether or not the interpretation is correct – if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." (Thomas)

A belief, therefore, may not alter the actuality of shared reality, as it is perceived by others, but it does alter the context in which the individual interprets personal reality. Basically, that means: Whether or not an individual's beliefs are valid, in the normative sense, the expectations related to those beliefs are projected outward and have real consequences. This applies to all social interaction, including the acquisition of religious belief.

Seth, the non-corporeal entity channeled through Jane Roberts, essentially said the same thing:

People wanted to believe, and their belief changed the course of history. It doesn't matter that the events never happened – the belief happened. And the belief was man's response to intuitional knowledge, to inner knowing, and to spiritual comprehension. (Seth-Roberts: 1980.09.15)

Seth also stated that if you can have reason without faith, then there can be faith without reason. (Seth-Roberts: 1980.09.29) This is the basis of fundamentalism, the mumpsimus that no reason can overcome.

Fortunately, as Unitarian Universalists, we encourage both faith and reason by advocating for a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Still, "believing" in our Fourth Principle is not the same thing as loving it to the point of actually living it.

We all understand the frustration in dealing with people who think that they have beliefs yet clearly do not project them into their lives. So, why should we gather with those who falter in their search? Why should we interact with those who claim to embrace our belief system but fall short of truly living it?

First and foremost, we must accept that what we "know" to be enlightenment is always a personal realization. That is, per the Thomas Theorem, our "Truth" is not necessarily universal. There is a reason that we believe what we do. There are equally valid reasons why the so-called "unenlightened" believe as they do.

It must be understood that symbolic interaction is always interpreted through our personal filters, including aspects of our spiritual journeys. They may be similar at times, but every individual has a unique experience with reality and, therefore, has a different definition for every facet within it.

Perhaps we are here to be teachers of a sort, for if we are truly living our beliefs, then perhaps we can exemplify the benefits they offer us. By being patient and loving, we become models that "prove" to those around us that we have found a worthy path to follow, thus encouraging them in their search for truth and meaning, also.

Regardless, we are all students, as well. Choosing to bring ourselves among those who are not practicing our shared ideals, as we think that they should, might be an opportunity for us to discover the flaws in our own reasoning. Our discomfort in such situations suggests that our responsible search for truth is far from complete. Thus, our fellows encourage us in our own search for truth and meaning.

Another possibility is that we chose a situational experience because we are looking for a particular psychological event-space, to help us resonate at a certain frequency, but instead found it to be an exhausting experience. If that is the case, then it is possible that we have made a bad choice, and we might need to reexamine our journey.

Alvin Toffler said: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can not read and write, but those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn." So, if we are to be responsible in our search, we must be willing to freely exam our beliefs, learn and unlearn and relearn them, especially when our journeys lead us into discomfiture.

No matter the reason that we find ourselves in distress, the responsible thing is to search which belief within us attracted us to this place. We may very well have chosen an incorrect belief or a place in which we do not belong. But giving up without understanding the why IS a free choice, but it is NOT a responsible search for truth and meaning.

In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:

You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which can not be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. (Writer's Almanac)

Stated in more modern terms, some answers can not be given to us. We must find them ourselves, by living the questions, by responsibly searching for them.

Therefore, the important thing is to ask yourself whether or not your current beliefs are working for you. Are they meeting YOUR spiritual needs? Are you living YOUR questions? Are you manifesting YOUR beliefs in a way that lives up to your faith?

If you discover that something is missing in your life, then you still have questions. Listen to them, and we, as Unitarian Universalists, will encourage you to freely and responsibly search for your own answers, to find your own personal truth and meaning.

Live the questions NOW. They will lead you to your dreams, and then you will make them manifest – and live your dreams. After all, if you do not live your dreams, who will?

References

If you click on a link (they look like this), you will be taken you to the online source in a new window.


Brainy Quotes. Belief quotes:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/belief.html

Merriam Webster online dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._I._Thomas

Pew Research, Religion and Public Life Project, Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which draws primarily on a new nationwide survey conducted from 2007 May 08 to Aug. 13:
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/

Wolfe, Rev. Sunshine Jeremiah. Unitarian Universalist Fourth Principal:
http://gqminister.livejournal.com/4687.html

Singing the Living Tradition. Boston, MA: The Unitarian Universalist Association, 1993.

Morales, Peter. "Belief is the enemy of faith: A new interfaith, multifaith spirituality is struggling to be born". UU World magazine. Fall 2013 8.15.13

Stanford Encycolpedia of Philosophy. Epistemology. 2005 December 14.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/

Thomas, William Issasc, with Dorothy Swaine. The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928.
http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/withomas03.htm

Seth (Spirit). Channeled by Jane Roberts. Various sessions. Seth-Roberts Center.
http://seth-roberts.org/

Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. E-Newsletter, 2008 December 04.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/12/04