Letter #99: Ringing that Bell Curve

Deep Truths Become Invisible

McSpence

We’ve been talking about how to understand ancient wisdom in modern times; new ways to look at and talk about eternal truths. How far should we go in opening our minds to what may at first sound like mystic blather? How receptive should we be to the tenets of other religions and sects, even when they seem to clash with ours?

Obviously, once the churches regain their power, we’ll move right on to blood-drenched crusades and burning heretics at the stake, but while we’re waiting, let’s see what we can figure out.

As a mid-life convert, one of the things I find most convincing about Christianity is this: it would be true, even if none of it ever happened. That is, even if the Gospels were exposed as a complete fraud, they would still be a fiction on the level of Shakespeare: more true than truth itself, a vision of the world that aligns our souls with creation.

At the same time, I agree with C.S. Lewis when he writes: “Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion that you could not have guessed.”

So while Christianity presents a deep, certain, vitalizing truth, it’s a truth we couldn’t have invented. Which means either the Gospel authors were working in the grip of some powerful inspiration, or they were recording God-sent events meant to open our eyes to a depth of reality we would not otherwise know.

Obviously, I think the latter is the case: The secret mechanism of the experienced universe was revealed to us in Christ’s life, preachings, death and resurrection.

Because it’s so completely true, such a revelation has a tendency to become invisible after a while. It’s like one of those Bell Curve memes where an idiot and a wise man say the same thing and only the fool in the middle misses the obvious. The idiot says “Jesus is Lord,” because that’s what his Mom told him, the fool says in his heart “There is no God,” because he’s no idiot, the wise man says “Jesus is Lord,” because it’s so clear once you see into the fabric of reality.

So if Christianity is this surprising but certain truth, it makes sense that anything that is true partakes of it. I wrote way back in letters #14 and #15 about my experience with Zen meditation. It was wonderfully illuminating, but ultimately seemed to me life-negating in a way Christianity is not. Still, I believe much of Buddhist wisdom Venns with the Gospels, and speaks that wisdom in fresh and inspiring ways.

Churches have to protect their orthodoxies or cease to be. And believers have to submerge themselves in those orthodoxies with full faith to make them effective. But the truth, being true, is everywhere. I think, if we believe that, we needn’t be afraid to seek it wherever and however it’s expressed.

Love, Dad