Which day or days do you think are holidays—in the literal sense of holy days?
My own answer to the question has been settled for a number of years, and has served me well. I'll say more about that in the concluding paragraph.
Two books nicely epitomize two contrasting ways of answering the question. The first is Yann Martel's 2001 novel, Life of Pi, which I reviewed on Monday. The other is a book mentioned recently in a local newspaper; I'll identify it later. For now, consider the following passage from Life of Pi:
I find this passage hilarious—even without Ravi's joke. It's probably my favorite passage in the whole book. Having three pompous clerics vie for the supremacy of each one's set of religious pretenses demonstrates the irrelevance of all three. Pi of course may—or may not—see something underneath the pretense, in the same way that some clerically religious people—despite their church membership—put little stock in dogma and focus on what's important. In Pi's case, even at the end of the book, it isn't clear to me what his religious extravagance is about."What is your son doing going to temple?" asked the priest.
"Your son was seen in church crossing himself," said the imam.
"Your son has gone Muslim," said the pandit.
Yes, it was all forcefully brought to the attention of my bemused parents. You see, they didn't know. They didn't know that I was a practising Hindu, Christian, and Muslim....
My parents looked puzzled to have their way gently blocked by three broadly smiling religious strangers....
After the "Hellos" and the "Good days," there was an awkward silence. The priest broke it when he said, with pride in his voice, "Piscine is a good Christian boy. I hope to see him join our choir soon."
My parents, the pandit, and the imam looked surprised.
"You must be mistaken. He's a good Muslim boy. He comes without fail to Friday prayer, and his knowledge of the Holy Qur'an is coming along nicely." So said the imam.
My parents, the priest, and the pandit looked incredulous.
The pandit spoke. "You're both wrong. He's a good Hindu boy. I see him all the time at the temple coming for darshan and performing puja."
My parents, the imam, and the priest looked astounded.
"There is no mistake," said the priest. "I know this boy. He is Piscine Molitor Patel and he's a Christian."
"I know him too, and I tell you he's a Muslim," asserted the imam.
"Nonsense!" cried the pandit. "Piscine was born a Hindu, lives a Hindu, and will die a Hindu!"
The three wise men stared at each other, breathless and disbelieving.
Lord, avert their eyes from me, I whispered in my soul.
All eyes fell upon me.
"Piscine, can this be true?" asked the imam earnestly. "Hindus and Christians are idolaters. They have many gods."
"And Muslims have many wives," responded the pandit.
The priest looked askance at both of them. "Piscine," he nearly whispered, "there is salvation only in Jesus."
"Balderdash! Christians know nothing about religion," said the pandit.
"They strayed long ago from God's path," said the imam.
"Where's God in your religion?" snapped the priest. "You don't have a single miracle to show for it. What kind of religion is that, without miracles?"
"It isn't a circus with dead people jumping out of tombs all the time, that's what! We Muslims stick to the essential miracle of existence. Birds flying, rain falling, crops growing—these are miracles enough for us."
"Feathers and rain are all very nice, but we like to know that God is truly with us."
"Is that so? Well, a whole lot of good it God to be with you—you tried to kill him! You hanged him to a cross with great big nails. Is that a civilized way to treat a prophet? The prophet Muhammad—peace be upon him—brought us the word of God without any undignified nonsense and died at a ripe old age."
"The word of God? To that illiterate merchant of yours in the middle of the desert? Those were drooling epileptic fits brought on by the swaying of his camel, not divine revelation. That, or the sun frying his brains!"
"If the Prophet—p.b.u.h.—were alive, he would have choice words for you," replied the imam, with narrowed eyes.
"Well, he's not! Christ is alive, while your old 'p.b.u.h.' is dead, dead, dead!"
...
Ravi [my older brother] had a field day of it when he found out.
"So, Swami Jesus, will you go on the hajj this year?" he said, bringing the palms of his hands together in front of his face in a reverent namaskar. "Does Mecca beckon?" He crossed himself. "Or will it be to Rome for your coronation as the next Pope Pius?" He drew in the air a Greek letter, making clear the spelling of his mockery. "Have you time yet to get the end of your pecker cut off and become a Jew? At the rate you're going, if you to to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday, and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life."... [pp. 64-67, 70]
Atheism, besides recommending itself by rejecting the absurdities and pretenses of religion, has the additional huge benefit of restoring sanity to the way we account days. On my view—and apparently on Mr. Jillette's—every day is holy in the sense that it is our reality, and we undervalue it to our spiritual detriment—"at our soul's peril," you might say, if you're comfortable with that sort of talk.
That is my Credo, I suppose, in a nutshell—What I Believe about Life. While I don't think of it as a religious credo in the narrow, theistic sense, I acknowledge that in a wider sense—one that might neutrally be termed "spiritual"—it is religious. It takes life seriously, it acknowledges that I will no longer exist when the atoms of my body stop being me, it accepts that we are all in this together and we won't pass this way again.
My Credo has enabled me to love and respect all sentient beings, to take pleasure in simple things like everyday chores, to play at my work, to find beauty in ordinary things, to want what I have, to joy in gratitude.
_______________
Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
Yes it is great to find beauty in ordinary things ! I have a plaque hanging by my kitchen sink found at a local thrift store that states " Be Awake to the songs of singing birds, the warmth of the sun, and the small joys that have no words.It has a leather tooled picture of a bird on it that is so pretty. I love it and it really set me back costing a whole dollar. It inspired me to write down small joys when I encounter them in a journal. Thanks Uncle Mo !
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DeleteMorris, yes, if any day could be called holy, then so could every day. The problem seems to be that the moment one involves the word "holy" one is at risk of being in the middle of a debate, shouting match - or war - spawned by those wishing to claim the day as "holy" only to their religious belief system. For that reason many of us choose to simply think of each day as special, and treat it as a gift we must honor and in some way attempt to repay. We particularly avoid using any terms, or aligning with any faction, that might put us in a situation such as the one young Pi encountered in the excerpt you chose from the novel.
ReplyDeleteMany ancient cultures worshiped the sun. Since there is only one sun the earth revolves around, and therefore not a second sun to argue about or kill over, perhaps we would all be better off if it had been left at that.
Motomynd, you may have caught me with my pants down, so to speak. I now see that I was probably trying to wrest "holy" onto neutral territory from all those belief systems you refer to. I'm simply saying (and you're also simply saying, if you can follow the parenthetical without losing your place in my thought—of course, the longer the parenthetical goes on, the more chance there is that you will lose your place <smile>) that ordinary, everyday life is so very special that no day has any need to be gussied up with someone or other's theistic religious trappings.
DeleteBut you're no doubt right that the theistic religious do tend to think that "holy" is theirs and theirs alone. And they aren't likely to understand any explanation as to why they're wrong.
However, please clarify your introduction of worship into this conversation. On my view, worship has nothing to do with treating every day as holy, and, in fact, introducing worship of a deity credited with endowing holiness amounts to a denial that life itself, as it is, is already holy. Which is why belief in God and worship are beside the point and unnecessary. That's even more my point.
i dont think there are any days with holes in them
DeleteMorris, I so badly want to say "is there a question in there somewhere" but I did unearth one (parentheses and commas aside) so here goes: I interjected worship as a simple statement of fact, in that many ancient civilizations worshiped the sun, and since you had already started down the "holy" path I assumed worship was an implied part of the discussion.
ReplyDeleteFor those who believe in honoring the sun, or worshiping it, if that is the preferred word - which was central to the Egyptians of ancient times, for example, and is, I think, still part of the Hindu belief system in modern times - then honoring or worshiping any other god, or prophet, is deity worship. Modern Christians would not think much of this belief, of course, and Islam is particularly touchy on this subject - the Muslim doctrine specifically forbids prayers during the rising and setting of the sun to underline its lack of divinity.
Many people will of course say you are completely wrong to say belief in God and worship are beside the point and unnecessary, so good luck to you in winning converts to your perspective. Personally speaking, I am all for any influence that encourages people to make more positive use of each day, rather than waste it, and if deity worship is what it takes to keep them focused, the why not let them have at it? To me the ancient Egyptians had it as much right as anyone, but if others want to believe otherwise they are welcome to it - as long as they don't try to force or coerce others to follow their narrow path.
James Dean may seem an unusual name to involve in a discussion about religious belief, but here is a quote attributed to him: "dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow." Many religions have been founded in words of much less merit - and millions upon millions of people have wasted their lives trying to adhere to personal and religious codes much more complex in structure, but bereft of comparable meaning.
Motomynd, first, I was more clarifying my position than asking you a question, but I'm glad you did reveal your assumption in mentioning worship.
DeleteWell, honoring is a far cry from worshiping, and, in my opinion, a lot of time is routinely wasted in the latter activity. I'm not sure that the set defined by the hypothetical, "if deity worship is what it takes [people] to keep them focused [on making more positive use of each day]," has any members. Deity worship seems to me to keep worshipers busy in negative use of their time. Of course, I guess it's possible that if they weren't worshiping, they might be doing something even more negative, so, in that sense, I guess it's "relatively positive."
Thanks for the quote from James Dean (not sure whether he and I are related). You of course noticed that his highly meritorious words involved no deity, no worship, no dogma.
PS: I don't expect to convert any theists to my perspective! I trust that you didn't really think that that was my objective.
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