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What You Believe Is Absurd (And 5 Reasons It Should Be)

I grew up in a Baptist church. (I write about it frequently, and every time I do I feel the need to include the fact that there were a lot of things I really loved about the experience. I’m thankful for it.) The church was—at the time—pretty proactive in teaching about the belief systems of other religions and philosophies.

I specifically remember a months-long teaching series on Mormonism as a cult. I remember going about thinking, “What? They really believe that?!” I remember that attitude in the presentation of the information. I remember that attitude in talking about it with others after the classes.

“Wait. You mean they really believe they can become gods of their own planet?!”

“They baptize alive people on behalf of dead people?”

It all seemed so … unbelievable to me.

It took me at least 15 years to realize that the same exact thing can be said about what I believe. I never once made the connection that when a Christian looks at a Buddhist and thinks, “Yeah, you’re crazy,” they are simultaneously making a statement about themselves.

What difference in veracity is there between the claim of a Mormon that he or she will one day be a god and the claim of a Protestant that Jesus was born of a virgin? Why is it more plausible in the mind of a Christian that he shouldn’t have consensual, premarital sex than is the idea that a Muslim shouldn’t eat pork?

My realization came while driving in my car listening to an interview with some of the creators of Broadway’s “The Book of Mormon.” I’m listening to the song excerpts and thinking, “This isn’t simply poking fun at Mormons. This is a statement on belief in general.”

A non-Mormon might think, “Yeah, ‘The Book of Mormon’ is so right. Those Mormon beliefs are so crazy, and it’s weird that people will go to such great lengths to follow those beliefs.” All the while, they’re missing out on how equally crazy all of their own beliefs are.

I don’t care how much you try to rationalize the virgin birth, there’s just no way to do it. And I don’t care how you think you can prove it, it’s just not able to be proven. But isn’t that the nature of belief? Do we have to believe things we empirically prove? (Philosophers might answer that question “yes,” but that actually goes to my point.)

So why do I use the word “absurd” in the title of this post? Because “absurd” means “wildly unreasonable and illogical,” and that’s exactly what the things we believe should be. 

The point in all this is not to say, “Stop believing.” We all believe in something. It’s not to say, “Complete ‘rationality’ is the only way to live.” I don’t actually think our minds are the totality of what it means to be human. What I want to say is this: Once we recognize that what we believe is absurd, it sets us up for success.