On Tuesday, December 4, 2001, Samantha Smith wrote:

Hi, Jeanne

Can you compare society to religion? Does society play a role in religion? I have been looking on the site for some answer to these questions. I can't find any. The reason why I asked these questionsis that ever since Sept. 11 I have been trying to get closer to my higher power (GOD). For some reason the way I feel about society stops me from getting closer to religious beliefs. I believe in God, but I also see myself questioning him. All my life I was told that religion comes first in whatever you do, and society just changes through time.

Jeanne, Help me understand when you get the time....

On Monday, December 10, 2001, jeanne responded:

Samantha, I'm going to answer you directly and simply. I'll come back to this issue with texts and links later. Tonight it's almost midnight, and I'd like to just tell you what I think.

No, we can't compare society to religion. Religion is one of the institutions of which society is composed. Society encompasses religion. Well, sort of. . . . It's complicated, isn't it? Religion is one of the spheres we have to consider in society, like education and government and the economic sphere. But just as economics and corporate power and government and law affect society, so does society affect each of the spheres. That's the interdependence that Henry and Milovanovic talk about. That's also why Habermas thinks the system of law is so important, because that's the sphere that concerns legitimization and sovereignty.

Religion is the sphere that governs our ethics and morality. What's good and what's bad? And that may be an essential sphere to the survival of our world. One of the difficulties that surround religion is our inability to prove whether we're right or wrong because of the limitations of our experience. We cannot know life after death without either first dying OR, and it's a very important OR, interpreting an experience that we can only know through our senses. That which we cannot "know" through our reason, in a way that we can impart what we "know" to others, remains in the realm of "belief," not "knowledge." And so we have a whole area of philosophy given over to how and what we can "know." Remember Jonathon Lear's concern with "knowingness" (OpenMinded)

So you're not the only one who's confused. We all are. It's the dilemma of humans to be frustrated by their limits to "knowing." We are curious creatures, and we like answers, "right" answers, that we can "prove" to be "right." But there are many things we do not "know" and cannot "prove." They make us uncomfortable. In pscyhology we call this condition "cognitive dissonance." We tend to not like it when we can't tie things up in neat little packages. And some things, like God, evil, truth, justice, beauty just refuse to be tied up all nice and neat.

I like the way Gordon Fellman describes our situation, as an adversarial one that has led us to be obsessively adversarial. We are convinced that we must fight for our right to be, to acquire resources, and that our fellows will not willingly share. And we are right to some extent. There certainly are numerous greedy folk out there who want to gather all the resources for their own use. America has been one of those greedy folk over the years. And Islamists accuse of us consumerism and social injustice. To some extent they are right, and we do want to reflect on the extent to which we have harmed others.

But doing harm and doing good are not extreme categories. They fall along a continuum, like most everything else. Some of our foreign policy decisions have helped others, and have been motivated by good intentions. But some have harmed others, and have been motivated by greed and colonialism. Most have been somewhere in between these two extremes. Sometimes we mean to help, and yet actually make things worse, not just in foreign policy, but also in our interpersonal relations.

Remember convergent and divergent thinking? Sometimes there just are no right answers. We have to think creatively and be willing to listen in good faith to the "Other," whoever she may be. Most religions teach us of a God who loves us, a God who offers bliss and peace in the hereafter. I think we all need now to listen in good faith to people like Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Tutu. We need to seek forgiveness and healing so that we can manage not to hurt each other so much. That's the paradigm shift that Fellman is talking about.

I can understand your questioning God. I could even understand your being angry with him. Humans often are. But I suspect it is not God we need to question. I suspect the culprit here is us. That is one of the things I like so much in Professor Maria Pia Lara's suggestion that we need to consider "a secular approach to the problem of evil." Maybe God permits evil. And maybe, just maybe, we humans invented it.

These are some of the questions we'll be considering in the Fall 2002 classes. Now it's well after midnight, and I need some sleep. love and peace, jeanne

On Wednesday, December 12, 2001, Lisa J. Stevens responded:

Subject: "I believe in God, but I also see myself questioning him."

Jeanne: I read your reply to Samantha, and that is so true how we humans want everything all tied up in little packages just so. Religion is a part of society, while I do not consider myself religious per se, I do consider myself a spiritual person. I belong to a church and it is my tradition, but have a hard time sometimes with the way that the clergy choose to tie things up in little packages. As I get older, I pray and practice acceptance, while I still anaylze, debate and discuss this issue of religion. It cannot be proven, and it provides something to the society that we need. I think of it as hope. Hope in the world where we are at this time is wonderful. It provides me with a place in which to place my fear, judgements, and despair. In a way, it is my nicely tied bundle. I seem to enjoy life ever so much more now.

I like very much the way that Fellman describes us as obsessively adversarial. His concepts are so true to me and they use lingo that is tangible. We are obsessively adversarial. I believe in forgiveness. Sometimes I can't see how to forgive right away, but if I pray about it and ask for guidance, I time and time again can begin to love my adversary. It is about willingness. Willingness to let someone be different from you.

Well, I am rambling, but I just felt compelled to write about this.....
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
Lisa Stevens

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