Beyond Belief
That phrase keeps coming up lately.
Traditionally, “beyond belief” has been used to denote things that are literally unbelievable, as in “totally, completely, or utterly beyond belief.”
But I’ve noticed the phrase is now becoming adapted for a more contemporary issue: what lies beyond religious faith?
If you’re a Christian, then you might use this phrase to mean, “OK, so you believe. Now, how do you go beyond mere beliefs and live your life as God wants you to?”
But more interestingly (to me at least), a number of secular sources have begun to use it to pose the issue of, “What does the future look like when we have moved beyond superstitious faith?”
For instance, in 2003, the art theme of Burning Man was Beyond Belief.
Beyond belief, beyond the dogmas, creeds, and metaphysical ideas of religion, there is immediate experience. It is from this primal world that living faith arises. The intention of Beyond Belief is to explore this mystery. In 2003, we will invite participants to create interactive rites, ritual processions, elaborate images, shrines, icons, temples, and visions. Our theme will occupy that ambiguous territory that lies between reverence and ridicule, faith and belief, the absurd and the stunningly sublime. The human urge to make events, objects, actions, and personalities sacred is protean. It can fix on and inhabit anyone or anything. This year our art theme will release that spirit in the Black Rock Desert.
Clearly this theme touched a nerve. In my opinion, it was a particularly fertile year for the always-fertile Black Rock city.
A more recent use of the phrase was at the Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival symposium given November 5-7, 2006 at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. This symposium drew together prominent scientists to discuss three major threads:
- The clash of cultures: religion and science. Is this a zero-sum game?
- Can you be good without God?
- If not God then what? What about spirituality, meaning, and purpose?
The best news about this symposium is that the entire, un-edited video is freely available for viewing online.
So, from what I can see the “Beyond Belief” conversation is proceeding nicely in both sides of the brain, the right side exemplified by Burning Man and the left by the symposium. Knowing things like these are going on gives me a lot of hope for the future of humanity.
