I just heard a story about an episode in which a mother did an adult daughter a generous kindness, and, reasonably soon thereafter, won an amount of money, playing bingo, fairly near the expense incurred.
(I heard the story from the daughter, for what it's worth.)
The mother attributed the windfall to "God's reward", considering it a literal payback for having done the kindness with no expectations.
The daughter was pleased about this, and considered it a good thing that someone would believe they had been the recipient of the favor of a invisible, benevolant, omniscient, omnipotent, supernatural being for having done a clearly selfless, benevolant thing.
Hereafter, the invisible, benevolant, omniscient, omnipotent, supernatural being will be refered to as "Dude".
I prefer not to interpret things in such a way. I'm leery of picking some two circumstances, events, occurences, whatever, that have no identifiable, provable, repeatable connection,
and claiming a supernatural causality between them.
How does she "know" that the one thing caused the other? What makes her "right"? Do I have the latitude to declare that any two such events in my own life are causally connected by means of Dude? (I invite you to invent your own absurd examples; they are surely myriad.)
Moreover, I have a distaste for taking any *singular* event and determining that the fact that the event occurred must play some meaningful role vis a vis Dude.
Something extraordinarily good happens, and people give praise to Dude, and hold it up as proof of their supernatural system of belief.
Something extraordinarily bad happens, and people explain that Dude works in mysterious ways, and Dude needed this person in his service after death.
Or, worse, they explain how Dude was punishing this person for something.
This is a recurring theme in my life, and I don't mean just observing this behavior in others and feeling superior and contemptuous.
I mean, when I encounter a foul turn, misfortune, I'm aware of a mental mechanism that tries to determine what I am being punished for, so that I don't do that again, which is not at all the same thing as examining the situation to determine what the true, provable, cause of this is. Maybe it's an native, human instinct, maybe it was "learned" in, but it's wrong.
Sometimesm things just happen, folks.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Superstition
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1 comment:
Okay, dude remarks.
SIN:? I went to the beach in FL and had a great time while refugees were struggling to get basic needs met. I even went out and ate some really good meals, cooked by other people, who may very well have made only minimum wage and lived in hovels. Of course I tipped well (LIBERAL GUILT)but dude don't care.
PUNISHMENT: (partly before the event--since dude knows all and knew I would commit this sin even before I did it.) Spouse got an uncurable disease. As an added bonus, because we stayed an extra day or so, dude visited upon spouse & me really bad cough, cold, aches, pains, cloudy head etc., which endure unto this day and dude knows how much longer. Dude also wreaked havok upon a close relative,"The sins of the mother are visited upon the kid" the dude book says.
BUT: I know dude loves us because all this is just temporary--except for the uncurable disease,and who knows what spouse did to cause that. Anyway, incurable disease is also just temporary, eventually. As far as the close relative, 'They' say, "Dude never closes one door but that he opens onother."
It is difficult, when all around are talking like this, and one was reared in a religion that teaches this stuff, and by parents who taught something like it, but work hard to keep that thinking out of your head. Bad stuff don't happen because we F'dU. It seems to me too that this is a particularly bad time, but,in closing,,,,,
A HEAVENLY CHORUS:"Dude will take care of you." la la la
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