BELIEF

This was a dialogue that I was very much looking forward to, but unfortunately I feel like it didn’t develop.  I was impressed with Dr. Pasternak for starting out by defending religious belief and stating his desire to see reconciliation between religion and science.  I felt that some of the discussion was underdeveloped though.  Dr. Pasternak stated at one point that the particular belief didn’t matter, only that an individual believed in something strongly.  Perhaps he didn’t have sufficient time to fully present his thinking or didn’t feel to establish his baseline assumptions, but I found this statement somewhat disturbing in its amorality.  For example, is there no difference then between a monk and a Nazi?  Both believe in something strongly, but anyone (save Nazi’s) would agree there is an astronomical qualitative difference between what these individuals believe and what those beliefs would both allow and even encourage them to do.  Based on Dr. Pasternak’s participation, I don’t think he would disagree with this line of reasoning, but the face that there was no clarification on the point was disappointing. 

The core questions to be addressed in this dialogue were: Is belief — in God, gods, ideologies or ourselves — the force that ultimately drives us and designs our lives? If so, what happens when our deepest beliefs are overturned? What are the greatest disruptions to our belief systems that are on the horizon? Will they make the world more or less bearable?  Unfortunately, this dialogue did not really address these questions with any specificity.  I believe that these are relevant questions and I do believe that our beliefs are what drive us, in very specific ways as well as general ways.   Our beliefs inform our how we interpret the raw experiences that we have, enabling us to determine meaning for them and to use them guide our future decisions and actions.  Many of the problems that we see in the world are not caused by belief or even the clash of belief, but in our failure to truly abide by our beliefs, be they religious, philosophical, scientific, or otherwise.