Belief - a postscript

A few days ago I wrote about my goldfish, postulating hypotheses as to their disappearance. Abduction by aliens seemed a remote possibility and so I had decide to settle on the probability of the more mundane notion that they had been eaten by the local heron.

Now I find myself having to re-examine my ideas in the light of new evidence.  This is a scientific approach, whereby evidence cannot be ignored and all ideas are subject to re-evaluation in the light of new findings. There are some who still believe that the Earth is flat, ignoring all evidence that contradicts this old idea. I suspect that these people are few and far between and probably concentrated in secure accommodation, but they do exist.  Any idea that is not subject to modification in the presence of new information is bogus, and this is why religious faith, however hard followers try to build bridges, can never be held alongside science as a beacon of truth.

Anyhow I digress; my problem is this.  The fish have reappeared, well at least four of them have, I saw them through the murk this morning.  Now I have to re-evaluate my ideas.  Clearly my original bird based notion has been shot out of the water, as it were.  Could the alien abduction be the correct idea?  If so then they have learned all they can about my fish and kindly returned them to their home. This makes very little sense, though if I were lazy enough not to think, then I could accept this and set up some sort of alien appreciation society. We could collect money from those least able to afford it, and build monumental edifices where we could meet and sing songs together in appreciation, or fear of the great fishermen in the sky.  However that sort of thing has already been done and  has a tendency to halt the thinking process permanently.

Putting all the recent findings together, I have had to discount the original two hypotheses, and set up a new one. The water is pretty murky so I have to concede that the fish were actually hiding from me. Hiding from me - the big face in the sky, who brought them to their world and provides them with food? How dare they?   I have a good mind to smite them!

Adrenaline

Adrenaline, or epinephrine, was discovered in 1900 and can be considered to be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine.  It is naturally produced by the adrenal glands and is the chief chemical messenger of the sympathetic nervous system, preparing the body for any sort of crisis. In response to fear, it dilates the iris, increases heart rate and breathing capacity and dilates some blood vessels allowing the vital parts to receive a better supply of blood.  It is also released into the bloodstream when we are angry or when we are sexually aroused, it's effects can be summarised by the three Fs - fight, fright and shall we say frolic.

For some, the effects of adrenaline surges are addictive, especially among the young and foolhardy, though there are many older and equally foolhardy junkies out there.  Most of us enjoy a certain amount of fear as long as the conditions are controlled and that there is an escape route. Children love scary stories up to a point as long as they know that they are just stories, and for adults there is a massive market out there for horror stories and movies.  Theme parks and fun fairs provide rides that give some experiences that are so far beyond their normality, but people rarely think f these rides as unsafe. If that seed of doubt were there, most would not put themselves at any real risk.

For me, travelling on the M25 and the spectre of senility are probably as scary as things tend to be. My days of thrill seeking have long gone but I do take long and wistful looks at memories of times when I thought of myself as immortal. Times when I would do things without too much consideration of consequences.

Bringing up children in 21st century England is a difficult job.  When we were young, there were lots of things to fear. Bad behaviour was often met with some form of physical punishment. A slap maybe, but in my experience nothing worse. In school, sanctions included detention after school, the cane for serious misbehaviour, or worse, a letter home to parents who would blame YOU and not the school.  Out in the real world, bad behaviour was often dealt with then and there with a slap around the ear of a boot in the backside should you be daft enough to get caught. We knew that for every action, there was the possibility of a reaction and that all behaviour had consequences.  Things have changed, children no longer have a healthy fear of behaving badly, a loss of privileges can be tiresome but it is nothing to be afraid of and besides there is always something there to take its place. Lack of fear can lead to a reckless disregard for any form of authority and this begins at home.

Fear is essential and without it grows confidence without competence. Sooner or later there will be a clash of expectations and then there will be tears.

Belief

"Belief is a state of the mind, treated in various academic disciplines, especially philosophy and psychology, as well as traditional culture, in which a subject roughly regards a thing to be true."

My six goldfish vanished from my garden pond the other night. They hadn't been there very long and it is possible that they were abducted by aliens.

As children, we go through a slow process of coming to terms with the world that surrounds us. We are helped along the way, by others whip have already been through that process, and are fed with lies that enable us to accept what experiences come our way.  Mostly parents do not see them as lies, and are happy to promote  the stories that they grew up will as part of growing up.  Most children believe that a large fat man in a red suit climbs down the chimney of every boy or girl that has been good for a year, and leaves them gifts on the 25th of December. The impossibility of it, does not cross their minds; they accept it because their parents and their teachers tell them that is what happens and so for them it does.  It is an induction into the world of mythology and legend which for some is going to shape their minds for the rest of their lives. 

Children love stories, they love the ideas of fairies and dragons, of magic and wonder, and through these tales they learn much about good and bad, and also about living with other people. Most fairy tales have a message and are a way of addressing morality. Good always triumphs over bad and for most this i s a great comfort.

Later they learn about monsters and ghosts and other manufactured phenomena designed to scare, and through these they learn fear. Without interaction with caring adults, these fears can become nightmares and who knows what psychological damage can come from them.

Children believe what they are told, especially in the first five years or so of their lives, and what you tell them is going to stay with them until they reach the age of reason. Indoctrinate your children well enough and that age of reason is never achieved, as demonstrated by the Jesuits claims that if they have the child for the first seven years, they will give you the man.

We all grow up believing things, even things that have no foundation in fact whatsoever, and gradually, those beliefs  are demolished in the light of experience and through analysis observation and application of reason. Yet some beliefs remain. There may be race memories, genetically embedded that provide a need to believe in something, whether it be Nessie,  alien visitors or supernatural phenomena. There are plenty who believe in things that most others will consider silly, and yet the belief is there, it is embedded and impossible to shift. For some, ghosts are real, despite the fact that their existence cannot be proved. It is not possible to prove that something does not exist and because of this, there will always be those who have faith.

Having faith in an idea must be quite a comfort. You KNOW that you are right and that no-one can convince you otherwise. You do not need to prove anything, it is up to the rest of the world to do the impossible and to prove you wrong.  

The ability to convince others that you are right has enabled so many to control and manipulate populations and to divert the course of history. Faith and belief are incredibly powerful, they bind people and divide people at the same time. Blind faith is seen as something to be proud of, something to celebrate, and yet it is not. It is an escape from reality.

My fish I suspect were taken by a heron. I have seen on in the locality and although I did not witness what happened, I believe that this is the most likely cause of their disappearance.

Threats

Mankind is almost certainly a doomed species.  Each year we witness more and more extinctions as we struggle to exist. We invest time and energy into weapons designed to kill competitors and of course each other, and however hideous and catastrophic a weapon might be, sooner or later it will be used. There are too many people in the world and the numbers are expanding almost exponentially, whilst resources are dwindling. Ingenious scientists and technologists are no longer keeping up with the increasing demands and this cannot go on indefinitely.

Yesterday, a large, and visible asteroid came within the Earth's gravitational influence but thankfully passed us by. There are plenty more where that came from, some of them very small but others significantly large and sooner or later there will be a direct strike. They have happened many times before despite the ability of Jupiter to protect us from most of them, and we will always be vulnerable. Despite Hollywood's optimistic view of our ability to deal with them, visitors for outer space pose a continued threat.

There is much talk about the planet being under threat from our activities. Global warming, deforestation, pollution, you name it are seen as a threat to the planet, and yet it is us that is threatened not the planet. Our presence on the earth will be transitory and largely unnoticeable, apart from a thin layer of non biodegradable plastics. The Earth will change because that is what it does. We are only here because it  evolved conditions that favoured life on earth, and eventually what we imagine is the pinnacle of evolution.

Ebola, a particularly nasty disease, has broken out of Africa and cases are now being seen all over the world. Complacency tells us that we are safe in the west because our sanitation and health services are so much better. AS more and more people become infected, there is a greater chance that the virus will evolve and possibly become more infectious. Ebola is just one disease that is threatening us and with approaching winter, Influenza will be striking again and there is always the possibility of a new mutant strain that is far more lethal than usual.

If that were not enough, we are in danger of exterminating each other by warfare.  In this centenary year of remembrance of the first world war, we are again approaching a major conflict that looks as if it may run out of control.  How absurd it is that in an age of reason, that religion should be at the heart of it.  The Islamic world, by definition, has not reached a state of reason, and still lives by rules set down in mediaeval times. That culture clashes totally with that of the west, and also with variants of their own religion.  The middle east, was of course the source of most modern religions, all of which have common ground but also huge differences. One thing that they all had in common was a message of peace and yet the cesspit of the middle east has been a source of conflict, bloodshed and inhumanity throughout recorded history.  While western cultures, by and large, have grown up, the world of Islam remains trapped in a system that wants the west to change by stepping backwards, and is unwilling to move forwards.

We have cities and urban areas in this country that are  predominantly populated by Asian communities, most of which are followers of Islam.  Overall it seems that their religion comes first, then their culture and then the culture and laws of their adopted country. Mosques are seen as centres for radicalisation, and British Muslims are daily travelling to the middle east to fight for whatever cause they see as important.  The EDL, BNP and UKIP,  are growing rapidly, the Tory party not seen as right wing enough for some. and their attitude towards all foreigners cannot be described as friendly. As Muslim profiles get enhanced by the actions of their own extremists, more and more people, particularly in areas being taken over by Islamic culture,  will join these groups, creating the tinder, that one day will be ignited. The rising tide of Islam in the west is the biggest threat that we face, and yet it is viewed with complacency by governments and people alike. 

Breasts

There was a time when a breast of lamb was a bit of a treat. My mother would buy one now and then to make what she referred to as Irish stew.  There isn't a lot of meat on a lamb breast, most of it seems to be fat and bone, but it does make a nutritious and tasty meal.  It remains a relatively cheap cut of meat, paling into insignificance alongside the very trendy and popular pork ribs, and yet I still have the occasional yen to buy one and recreate a taste of the past.  I will not go so far as to cook pigs feet or tails, and definitely will not cook a pigs head as my mother was often asked to do.

In my childhood, it has been said that diets were much healthier, and maybe they were.  Fat people were few and far between and most of us were skinny.  It must be hard today to maintain healthy diets for children with so many tasty temptations around, and for most people there is no shortage of food.  Some people seem to make food the centre of their lives, living to eat rather than the other way around.  Every weekend newspaper has pages and pages dedicated to food and eating, and restaurants seem to thrive everywhere, people prepared to pay the ludicrous prices that they charge for their ambience and minimal cuisine.

I can still recall the smell of one of those stews, greeting us as we got home from school. I still remember the taste and the deep satisfaction gained as we mopped up the last bits of gravy with lumps of white bread.  I still love a good stew and for me, dishes like this are one of the few highlights of winter.

Noise

I went to London yesterday and am still in recovery.  I could be described as hearing impaired; in the old days it would be half deaf as I only have one ear that actually functions.  In most circumstances I cope with it, though stereo sound is wasted on me and I have no idea where sounds are coming from. I prefer one to one contacts and avoid crowded rooms as all sounds come in through the left channel and are mixed hopelessly.
The problems started on the train; shifted from my safety zone into public transport is not my idea of a good time and although we got seats, the noise was almost overwhelming.  The sound of the train itself was bearable, but there was a high pitched whine at around the 15khz frequency, that penetrated where few sounds can. It remained for the entire journey, a harbinger of what was yet to come.
We disgorged at London Bridge and joined the seething mass of humanity.  It was reminiscent of an anthill that has had the top kicked off, with people rushing around in all directions in a recreation of some version of hell.  The whole thing accompanied by a barrage of noise from traffic, overhead aircraft, road works and every other possible means of creating sounds. For me, any sort of meaning is very hard to distil from this and so I wandered around, admiring architecture and being moved by the ceramic poppies.  We did find a reasonably tranquil spot by the river and conversation was temporarily possible.
Next came the restaurant - a trendy place on the south bank more or less underneath the Shard. Putting aside London prices, the place was lovely and the atmosphere was, well, loud. As soon as we sat down, I realised that wherever I sat was not going to make the slightest difference. As with all restaurants, there is background noise which escalates exponentially as it fills up. The lack of soft furnishing, and the nearby espresso machine complimented the bashing of crockery and cutlery and immersed me in isolation.  The food was good and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, but by the end of the meal and the second bottle of house red, my head was throbbing, and we still had the train journey to come. We declined going on for a drink and headed for home.  There was no whine on the train home and within the hour I was back into my safe zone and the peace and silence that is my normality.
It is hard to explain to others how monaural hearing can be so handicapping, as one functions well in normal circumstances; hearing difficulties are hard to empathise with as there is no visual clue, thus people have little patience when they are not heard.