SO! WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER BELIEVE?

By Edwin Cooney

Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of 2019's socio and political experience is the realization that someone out there somewhere with your approximate intelligence and knowledge strongly disagrees with your personal assessment regarding religion, racism, economics, politics, responsibilities of parenting, and even the value of your patriotism. How, you may often wonder, can that be? Of course, central to any set of opinions or conclusions you may hold is your personal set of fundamental beliefs. It's even possible that you may believe something without realizing it.

Twenty-three years ago, I was in a conversation with two people. One was a sweetheart of mine, the other one is still a friend. My then-sweetheart asked the two of us: do you believe that human beings are fundamentally good or evil? I took the affirmative and my friend took the negative position. My affirmative position was based on what I wanted to believe. His position was based, as I remember it, on the biblical teaching that we are all sinners. What disconcerted me about his belief was that he believed (because he was required to believe) that people are fundamentally evil because they are “sinners.” It's tempting to me at this point to enlarge on this topic by defending my belief while confronting his belief. However, I’m not going to do that because I'm inviting you to consider the question: how much do we believe based on requirement rather than on conclusion?

Only a short time ago, I realized for the first time in my life that I believed something out of requirement rather than conclusion. I believed that "Almighty God” believes in and loves America over every other people. How could God not feel that way, I used to wonder.  After all, aren't we the freest, richest, and most successful people in the world? Then one day I had an epiphany. If God created the world (and I choose to believe that God did just that!), how could God love some people more than others? How often are we charged as parents with loving one child more than we do the other? I'm comfortable believing that everyone we love, we love differently. This belief comes through my lifelong experience rather than from a native or instinctual conclusion.

Another epiphany I've experienced is the realization that moral behavior is far from the exclusive property of the spiritual. To put it differently, there are some agnostics I'd trust my money or my life with more than I'd trust many religious persons. (Note: remember Judas who accepted the silver and Peter who denied Jesus Christ?)

I'd rather believe that all humanity is good all of the time, but obviously that's absurd!

So, I repeat the question: what would you rather believe but are unable to due to some empirical reason or experience? Here are a few of mine.

I would like to believe that we will soon come to a consensus as to the status of today's climate, but I'm not sure that we are capable of doing so. It seems to me that presently we lack either the leadership or the will to form such a consensus.

I'd rather believe that someone somewhere in the Republican Party is willing to challenge President Trump for the party's 2020 presidential nomination. So far, however, I've seen neither hide nor hair of anyone!

I'd rather believe that people are more inspired by good news than by bad news, but experience tells me that excitement is invariably more powerful than gratification.

Finally, I'd rather believe that the culture wars through which we've been passing will die when the next two or three generations take firm control of our body politic.

My era will be ending in the next 25 to 30 years. The future will inevitably be someone else's business not mine.

It's my experience that most of us, as we get older, invariably convince ourselves that our time was the best time of them all. Not too long ago, newsman Tom Brokaw wrote a book titled "The Greatest Generation.” He made a good case which was that his generation successfully overcame economic privation and the savages of World War II. Hence, Mr. Brokaw's generation became the “greatest” because it overcame the worst of times, a time that sent millions of innocent people to both the poorhouse and to the death house. Thus, Tom Brokaw obviously believes that good people overcame a pretty bad time!

I say, believe what you'd rather believe so long as it's wholesome!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY