Something to Believe In

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a co-worker about "belief". I'd have to scour my brain to recall exactly how we got on the subject, but this individual told me that she saw no reason to pick something to believe in. That statement got me thinking. I've always been someone who "picked something to believe in", whether it was the Catholicism of my youth, the Gnostic flavored fundamentalism of much of my adulthood or my current ever-shifting paganism. And when you look around you, most people choose to believe something that cannot be objectively demonstrated, a mythos to explain the unexplained. That mythos might be a pre-constructed doctrine or dogma of an established church or school of philosophy, or it might be something you cobbled together yourself in order to make sense of the world (and that's really what the doctrines, dogmas and holy books really are, the cobbling together of a worldview by other people who lived a long time ago). Even atheists, for all their assertions of rationality, make a definite point about defining their world, at least in part, as believing that what others believe is wrong (or at least can't be objectively supported). So can you go through life without having an opinion one way or another about gods, demons and the afterlife? It is my thought that the answer is a rousing "of course". Though many would disagree with me, the existence or nonexistence of a supernatural world has no effect on day-to-day, ordinary life. Sure, there are rules, regulations, ethics and morals that are taught by religions, but the ones that give guidance on how to live a "good life" can be followed quite easily even if there is no spiritual being standing behind them. Even prayer can be conducted without any god out there, in there or over there to hear and answer those prayers. So why does someone who simply opts out of any incorporation of religion into her life become the oddball, the one who has to explain herself to others? As with most things, it has nothing to do with logical, rational thought, or even a deep devotion to a set of beliefs, but a cultural, even human, fear of "the other". People distrust those who are different, marginalize those outside the tribe and demonize the truly different.