I believe that there's an underlying reality to everything. (So did Einstein, so there.)
It doesn't matter whether one thinks the earth is flat; it's not. This, sadly, is problematic on a global scale. The world is littered with people committing horrible acts of kidnapping, murder, rape, sometimes all three. The people responsible admit to these acts freely, proudly, though they don't believe they've committed a crime. They BELIEVE, regardless of the chasm between their own thoughts and the real world, that they did something righteous, noble.
When I say Jewish and you say Muslim we are building on two different foundations. This isn't to say that there can't be consensus, peace, even friendship. But when fundamental realities differ then you're treading on the thinnest veneer of ice. When I say science and you say faith it makes it difficult, sometimes impossible, to reach agreement. How can we agree on ends when we can't even agree on beginnings? I get the appeal of religion, especially as a parent:
"Hey Dad, where does the universe come from?"
"God did it."
I can appreciate both the ease and brevity of that conversation. It's sure-as-shit easier than explaining (or understanding) Bell's Theorem. Easier answers are sought not by those who want the truth (oh, the irony) but by those who can't be bothered (for whatever reasons) to delve. Of course, they'll argue that they do delve, they read all kinds of things: the bible, things that tell them the bible is true...other things that tell them that scientists are often wrong and that the bible is NEVER wrong.
As I sat in the grocery checkout line recently, Riley facing me from the basket, I noticed the child in line in front of me, about the same age as Riley, his hair was white-blond, his teeth were crooked as a canyon, and his mouth seemed to be frozen open in a squared-O shape that I took to be a crooked smile. An Asian child, also around the same age, sat in the shopping cart facing her mother.
All three babies noticed each other, and of course all three parents noticed their kids noticing each other. These three kids all occupy the same reality. Their needs and wants don't differ much, in general, one from the other.
When I skim the news about, say, the pissing contest between Boehner and Obama I can't help but be distracted by the thought that these men are living in different realities. They're not reading off the same menu but they can't figure out why they can't decide on what to order. Boehner lives in a world, regardless of his partisanship, that apparently dictates tax cuts raise revenues. If I owned a store and I needed more money, would lowering the cost of items raise my bottom line? This isn't politics, it's simple math.
I looked from one kid to the other, each of them now babbling happily, kicking their legs, each of them laughing and pointing, and started to wonder how long their internal realities would stay so similar, and how wide it might grow by the time they become parents.
