What I Believe

I believe in global peace and harmony, first and foremost. That seems such a simple and straightforward thing. So much so as to invite smirks and parody. Doesn’t everyone believe in global peace? Unfortunately, no. Far too many human beings believe in destruction and predation. This is why people find it so easy to go to war and so difficult to build a peace. I speak out against those who believe that war and aggression are the natural order of things, and who seek to justify their own aggression on this basis. Human beings are free to create their own order. Peace or war are matters of choice, not naturalistic imperatives.

There is no good war. War devastates and brutalizes both the victor and the vanquished. Do we admire the Romans any more because they salted the ruins of Carthage? Do we detest the Nazis simply because they lost the war? Sixty years after the fact who really won the war in the Pacific? I don’t believe human beings should seek to secure an uncertain future at the cost of intermittent orgies of self-annihilation.

I am an unapologetic one-worlder. Borders are a holdover from a more primitive, feudal time. I think it foolish to contemplate travel to distant worlds when human beings insist upon dividing themselves along false sectarian lines. One can only defend borders by excluding others from the human community.

I believe in the necessity for human beings to practice and accept compassion and charity. To turn one’s back on charity in the belief that by doing so a person proclaims some sort of self-dignity is a foolish notion. If only people turned their backs on war and aggression for the same reason. Can you imagine? What if people refused to go to war because it’s degrading? The practice of compassion and charity is perhaps the most important thing human beings can do for themselves and each other to realize a better world.

I am an inveterate humanist. It troubles and astonishes me that the term humanism has taken on a pejorative edge in popular usage. People are responsible for the world they choose to create. It is not thrust upon them by unseen forces as a judgment upon human behavior. There are no gods to woo or mollify with prayers, pleadings, rituals, sacrifices, or self-abnegation. Human beings know right from wrong. They always have. Humans don’t need a book or tablets to tell them how to behave. At the same time I believe humankind must accept responsibility for its behavior. Human beings are free to create a utopia. Surrendering this freedom invites an apocalyptic future.

I believe there is a mystery which encompasses all existence, from here to the edge of creation. This mystery transcends human comprehension, and is not encompassed within any establish religious belief. To paraphrase a Taoist tenet, if you can speak of it, that is not it. Which is why I don’t believe in any god. Ironically, this is probably why many regard me as a person of faith. The mystery of existence is something that is beyond my comprehension, so I can only surrender to it and have faith that my life will resolve itself as it should. I do not pray, I do not petition, I have no expectations. I have no need to humble myself or to become more worthy in the hope of realizing my prayers. All existence is full of wonders. I need only live and all will eventually be made known to me. Or not. But that’s okay, too.

Peace, acceptance, compassion, charity, humanism, and faith in the belief that things will be okay. Pretty much sums it up. I suspect this is not a comprehensive list, but it encompasses the core of my beliefs. I like to leave room for thought.