The Half-Known Life by Ryan Lindner

Author:Ryan Lindner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2022-03-29T10:23:56+00:00

So, who are you? If you’re not roles, titles, or accolades, are you your opinions?

No, you aren’t those either. Opinions are mostly just an amalgamation of thoughts that reflect feelings. Again, most people don’t do their due diligence to seek complete information. It just has to be true enough to be agreeable. And for most, it’s not enough to believe something; they have to make someone else believe it too.

I once attended a trade show that lined the streets of a small town. All sorts of activities and vendors filled tents as far as the eye could see down Main Street. There were funnel cakes, local artists, and all kinds of handmade household items.

Standing beside an artist’s tent, an older woman commented on a piece.

“That one is beautiful,” she said to me.

I’m usually not one to become drawn into long conversations, but she was pleasant. We chatted about the gorgeous hiking trails in the area and the variety of artwork that depicted truly breathtaking scenery. After about half an hour of talking, things shifted.

From her shoulder bag, she withdrew a small pamphlet and placed it in my hands.

“Where do you go to church?” she asked.

Here we go . . . I thought.

For the next thirty minutes, she spoke continuously about her beliefs and why I needed to hear them. To some, this may be “The Good News.” But I couldn’t help but feel that throughout our entire conversation, she had an agenda—hers. This became more evident as, after an hour, she grew a bit frustrated with me as I became more closed. I felt duped. I felt like a means to an end. I left, politely thanking her for the conversation.

So what if I disagreed? What if I was secure in my own beliefs that were different from hers? Were we no longer friends? Would she think I was just “lost”? What in her was frustrated? Based on our conversation, I knew that she was born and raised in that small town and that she never left. So what makes her truth so much truer? The fact that she believes it.

Suppose I had much the same intentions. What if, at the moment she withdrew her pamphlet from her bag, I withdrew one of my own . . . for Scientology? How would that have changed the dynamic of the conversation?

“It’s faith,” many people say. They were “raised that way.”

This is not to say that any belief is untrue, but what makes it true other than your believing it is? All the “evidence,” right? The facts? Or your view of them?

Faith doesn’t make something reasonable. Otherwise, you could believe any sort of thing, like your toaster is sacred and can transport you to other dimensions. Dare someone to disprove it. If reason is important to you, then you’ll ask questions. Then what you’re saying when you believe something is that you’ve asked enough questions to find that faith reasonable.

Or reason isn’t important to you in faith, and so the truth isn’t either.

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