Religion | Tiger Riding for Beginners

Daily writing prompt

What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

Oh so many things. My epistemological stance is that one should be ready to drop any belief like a hot rock in the face of better information or better means to understanding.

One of the most fundamental changes is that I used to take for granted that there was a god. Now I’m agnostic about whether there is one, and am virtually certain that – in the unlikely event there is a god – it (she? they? he?) bears no resemblance to any of the tribally derived deities of the various world religions.

I used to think introversion was something that could be, and should be, overcome. Now, I believe the healthy approach is in accepting it and managing one’s life so that it’s not a problem. Truth be told, in my youth, I had a lot of grandiose ideas about what was possible with regards to the mind, ideas which I have jettisoned in favor of one’s that better match the empirical evidence.

Sun, Rain, Wind, & other agents of wear that tear down ancient stones one grain at a time, eroding symbolic rocks carved with symbols that meant something to people in days of yore. And they mean something to people today, but whether those meanings match is another question... Because our understanding of past perspectives is ever eroding: just like those rocks, but - unlike rock - thoughts and beliefs were wisps writ in a malleable art: language. We cling to traditions & lineages, but everything is erased.