Over the years I've written in this blog about famous people including Woody Allen. Maybe my favourite is this one. He and I were in a barber shop in New York City and my shirt spoke to him, but I didn't. Lately HBO in the USA and Fox Showcase here in Australia have been airing a mini-series titled "Allen v. Farrow." The series features the relevant events circa 1992, when a child sex scandal involving Dylan Farrow, their adopted daughter, and Woody became national and international news.
The producers have done a marvellous job in blending history and interviews, information sourced from hundreds of boxes formerly hidden the last 2+ decades and the music of Orlando Perez Rosso, Miguel Bezanilla and David Das. It's a captivating series so far.
What prompts my writing today before the series finale next week is a line I heard in episode 3. Mia looks into the camera and quotes Woody.
"It doesn't matter what is true; what matters is what's believed." - attributed to Woody Allen.
If that's a direct quote, that's significant to the writer/ director/ actor's case. Even if it's not a direct quote, it made me think today about matters of faith and religion as well as epistemology.
Two XIX century authors said this about truth--
Whatever these two romantics inferred, consider this from The Bard.
"When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies."In this 138th Sonnet, Shakespeare preferred the deception of his lover's lie to the truth. And he uses the term "I do believe her."
What is it about 'faith' and 'belief' that is considered a trump card to truth? Why do we choose to believe a falsehood when we know better?
The following is from Sociology of Religion, Volume 38, Issue 4, Winter 1977, Pages 368–388, Actually only the Abstract. I do not have access to the article itself.
"The accommodation between social science and religion of recent decades depended in part on the widespread conviction that there is no scientific basis for determining whether religious beliefs are true and whether religious practices are good. This conviction is based on dubious assumptions that have blinded sociologists to the judgments concerning religious beliefs and practice that are implicit in their theories. Put simply, general theory has implied that although there is much in religion that is good, religious beliefs are not true."
I guess the Allen v Farrow series triggered a lot of emotions in me. Truth really does matter. What actually happened or didn't happen matters. What people say matters. And then, if we are honest, honest to what we perceive to be true, or what the truth-tellers say about truth, then we should believe those truths.
Sociologist Ron McGivern wrote in a Soc 101 book printed in Canada this about religion/ belief systems:
"What is religion? Pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim described it with the ethereal statement that it consists of “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge” (1915). He went on to elaborate: Religion is “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community, called a church, all those who adhere to them” (1915). Some people associate religion with places of worship (a synagogue or church), others with a practice (confession or meditation), and still others with a concept that guides their daily lives (like dharma or sin). All of these people can agree that religion is a system of beliefs, values, and practices concerning what a person holds sacred or considers to be spiritually significant."(https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter-15-religion/)
Children are taught about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in some circles. And the 'oh, just let them have their imagination and beliefs' dismissal of the narrative doesn't sit well with some truth-tellers. Here's the problem. Faith or belief should follow truth.
I don't believe and thus a thought is true. I find truth and thus I should believe it.
Gravity is true and always was true, long before Sir Isaac Newton discovered and clarified much scientific data about it. That people believe in gravity or not is irrelevant. If you don't believe it exists, please don't walk off the top of a roof of a skyscraper. Your 'faith' will not save you; you will die.
Faith therefore should follow substantiated truth claims.
We love the stories of heroes who rise in the midst of overwhelming odds and win battles against oppressors or who defeat much larger enemies in the boxing ring or the football field or in a land far away. The reason those hero-stories are so vivid is that they are so rarely found. Most of the time the lesser is ruled by the dominant. Most of the time the weaker team loses to the stronger. Most of the time the house wins in Las Vegas to the disappointment of the 'believing' jackpot loser. Faith doesn't make things happen in most of those stories.
In real life, in your life, in my life today, let's let truth dominate. Things like facts matter. Truth matters. Sorry, Woody Allen, the truth does matter. There really is no Easter Bunny. There really is gravity.
Here's another set of truths that I discovered long after my birth. Jesus really did exist. He really did live in what we now call Israel. He really did die at the hands of Roman soldiers. They really did bury him in a sealed tomb. After three days, over 500 Jews really saw him alive; many ate with him and talked with him after his death.
What you believe about those facts...that's where you make your religion. That's when you either dismiss or take this on board. Faith really should follow substantiated truth claims. Amen?
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