Columnists
When Extremes Meet Full Circle
by I.J. SINGH
In life, we come across all kinds of people. In my own bailiwick, academia, I know many who scoff at any and all ideas of faith; they insist that to lead a life of faith is to abandon reason.
On the other side of the divide are the ardent believers who are just as quick to consign all those who question faith to everlasting hell. With their proselytizing, prayer breakfasts and political agenda, they are in my face just as much the unbelievers.
"There are no atheists in foxholes," someone reputedly said. The academic equivalent of a foxhole is facing a board of prestigious scholars in a comprehensive oral exam. In these trenches, a prayer spontaneously emerges from the minds of most students. Is it meant to be answered by someone somewhere keeping tabs and micromanaging our puny existence?
A prayer is not a commercial transaction. To me, God reveals Himself/Herself whenever we look within to discover the universal connectivity to our existence. This, then, so centers the mind that one transcends the self, becoming even better than one thought possible, with neither the fear of defeat, nor the allure of reward taking up space in one's mind. This is how Sikhism speaks to me. I see a similar core message in most of the world's great religions. (This is not meant to be just a politically correct statement.)
What then to do with the fringes on either extreme: those who look at my centering of the mind as illogical and pointless prayer to a unifying universality that they believe does not exist, or those who look at my prayer as hopelessly inadequate, misdirected or even blasphemous?
I see extremists on both ends of the spectrum as hardheaded, where neither wants to give a nanometer. Each side is sure of its view, as the absolute and only truth. The best I can do is to label them jihadists or crusaders in search of a cause. The atheistic jihadists are just as dangerous and indistinguishable in their passion and intransigence from the theistic jihadists of any ilk. Neither side is willing to entertain ambiguity, or uncertainty or a tentatively held belief.
The enemy of reason is not faith, and faith is not inimical to reason. Faith gives life hope and purpose; logic and reason provide the technology. We need to see them as complementary to each other, not warring with each other. Faith and reason can not only coexist in a purpose-driven life, but also surely enhance it.
In our not-so-gentle romp through life, how do we resist the two extremes that perennially threaten to box us in?