I have seen, frequently, the way those individuals that hold with the protestant christian beliefs of the bible belt, so clouded by their knowledge that when a person says "I'm not christian, they first ask "catholic?" then "how can you not believe in god?" Quite a leap from their religion to atheist , but that is where their belief led them. Their religion is about god, everyone else's is not.
Religious beliefs are very life shaping, very narrowing to our ability to think in ways that are not covered in our particular religion--especially if a child in raised in them, schooled in them, by parents that are either devout or unquestioning. It is no wonder that heresy was as much a reason to burn someone during the Rule of the church as witchcraft. More likely to get you in trouble than murder or rape.
The beliefs put out politically, are a little harder to understand, but the people that use political belief are rather good at it. Sometimes the belief is straight from the original thinker of the belief, and his or her passion can carry a lot of people. But later users are quite aware of the power of propaganda, patriotism, fear of being seen as a traitor and just plain buy-in by those that are lazy thinkers that want to be on the winning side. Political beliefs hold quite a lot of sway. Our own American view of history, created and approved by the government agencies that cover education and curriculm, bears little in common with the history learned in other countries.
I love history, so use every person born on foreign soil as an opportunity to see the other side. I am always baffled and amazed that my own (small town, tax-paid, bible belt) precollege education was completely lacking in information about: 1)the history of the middle east, all I learned about that was from bible school in the summer, a decidedly christian perspective, 2) Asia, China became Red China just like Russia became communist Russia, before that, both were wonderful places with royals and castles and that is literally it, it was in connection with the fact that Russia and China were REDS, so our enemy, 3) Africa, its where the slaves came from, it's a country and a continent, and its poor. 4) India is over-populated and starving, and cows walk around in the streets because they worship them (yes, a history teacher told me that, he was a coach, though....) 5) Japan was our enemy until we hit them with 2 atomic (hydrogen? who knows what the actual difference is?) and then they learned their lesson. 6). Australia, filled with English criminals, maybe we should have tried that, cheaper than prisons (wow, I'm pretty sure that I have relatives that chose to go to Australia rather than the U.S. and for no good reason, just--you are poor, you got caught stealing or being poor, what ship are you going to get on)
I'm sure you noticed that every bit of history is completely about that part of the world's reputation in the USA among the people teaching the class. Its not about information but beliefs. Beliefs are allowed to be biased, one-sided, right and wrong, and completely fictional.
We are currently quite horrified by suicide bombers--people whose beliefs have overtaken their own desire for self-preservation; but forget that there have always been people that will sacrifice themselves if they believe the cause is right. Japan had Kamikaze's, and Christianity had its martyrs, and let's not forget Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. People that die protecting what we value are martyrs and hero's. People that die fighting against us are evil, deluded, crazy and ridiculous. Perhaps we are all so stilted by our personal beliefs that they make us hypocrits.
We are currently being herded by our own buy-in to "Evil Socialism" despite the countries that have a higher standard of living due to it and the reality that we, in this country, were saved from "the great depression" by socialist programs like SOCIAL Security, the WPA (that was likely they last time many of our old infrastructures were repaired). Those programs were then added to by the addition of Medicare (because no insurance was available for people over 65--to high risk for the actuary tables, then Medicaid--so our children--even the poor ones didn't die of simple things like compound fractures and complicated home births.
Public schools are socialist--and if we weren't currently sitting on a kind of political identity disorder--"do we hate poor people? do we need poor people?", notice I didn't say LOVE poor people, no one loves poor people but Mother Teresa, and she is not here, but we have public schools for poor people, because rich people's kids always received the best schooling available, but until we changed from agricultural to industrial, no one cared if the person planting seeds and milking cows could read. Once you have big machines and more complicated jobs, reading and math is rather important.
And ideologically, the USA is supposed to be:
- the land of the free and home of the brave (
- the land of opportunity (you know, like Trump, took a measly million to get that opportunity opened)
- the place where all men are created equal in the eyes of the law (notice, no women, and plenty of men will tell you that the eyes of the law seem to respond well to money)
- one nation under god (pledge of allegiance, ca, 1954)
In my 20's, I spent years trying to reach ground zero on my spiritual beliefs so I could then go in search of beliefs that did not cause me cognitive dissonance. I think that a lot of people are currently doing that about their own beliefs about the country that they call home.
It is a hard trip. It is hard to not be angry at hypocrisy. It is hard to not be hurt when you hear that all that equality you believed in was really more about cheerleading than about how the powers-that-be felt about the average person living in this country. It it hard to look at your home with open eyes, seeing the inequality, the lack of opportunity, the injustice, the wasted lives and early deaths and extreme lack that has created so much of what is wrong in this wonderful, amazingly rich country.
Recently, a 30-something white male made the comment that the Catholic church could stop world poverty with the money they had stored over the years. He had no idea how much money they have, and while I doubt they are poor, their biggest assets are religious artifacts, extremely valuable--to those that collect religious artifacts--but not inherently worth anything. When asked what it would take to stop world poverty-the answer was rapid and flip--"how much does it cost for a bowl of rice?"
Beliefs. If you have a bowl of rice, you are not poor. I didn't ask if that was one bowl per person per day or 3 bowls per person per day. I do know that nothing but rice is not a balance diet, it will keep you alive today, but you will never make it to the median life expectancy if that is it. He also didn't address those people that have no access to clean water--and shelter from the elements, healthcare, and if you want to live, not just survive until tomorrow, you need something to do with your mind, your hands, your life. And you need enough stability in your life that you can have friendships and love, raise children or create beautiful or useful or meaningful things.
Beliefs.
I have heard it said that the Taoists seek no beliefs, and empty cup. No preconceptions interfering with their examination of each experience. I am intrigued, but have found I can't do that.
Apparently, my own beliefs, in fairness, in honesty, in transparency---mean I still have a ways to go before I am truly an unbeliever. Until then--may the force be with us all.
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