Beliefs are memes and memes only exist in the neural networks of
brains. When people talk about their beliefs, they often do it as if their
beliefs are facts that anyone can see.
Facts
are things that can be sensory perceived by anyone.
● The Statue of
Liberty and the Rocky Mountains exist. That’s a fact. They can be sensory
perceived (seen, felt, smelled, tasted)
by a group of people with very different belief systems.
● The Trinity and Original
Sin are beliefs. They cannot be sensory perceived (seen, felt, smelled, tasted). They are not real for people with
different belief systems.
In
order to view beliefs in the evolutionary contexts required to evaluate them, we must anchor them to the world outside the
brain. We do this by anchoring them to times, places and people. This
is very useful and scientists do with facts all of the time. Below is an
example using the Statue of Liberty.
● mid.1865 – In an
after dinner conversation, Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French
Anti-Slavery Society is supposed to have said to Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor,
"If a monument should rise in the United States . . . .”
● 07/1884 -- Construction of the statue completed
in France.
● 06/17/1885 -- The
crates holding the disassembled statue on board arrive in New York on the French
steamer Isère.
● 10/28/1886 – The Statue
of Liberty dedicated.
We
now understand how the idea of the Statue of Liberty originated in a conversation
in 1865 and follow its dedication in 1886. We can dig deeper to understand it
better by gathering more facts and fill in the gaps between the dates above.
We
use the same model for understanding beliefs. Let’s take a look at the belief
called “The Doctrine of the Trinity.”
Below is a brief overview:
● Bishop Alexander of Alexandria (d.
326 or 328) gave a sermon
stating the similarity of the Son to the Father.
● Arius (256-336), a priest in Alexandria,
argued that "if the Father
begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this
it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows, that he [the Son] had his
substance from nothing."
● Bishop Alexander called a council of bishops. They decided
against Arius’s position and excommunicated Arius and his supporters.
● Arius continued to teach and Arianism spread
to many other places.
● 05/325 -- The First Council of Nicaea was
convened by Emperor Constantine the
Great and charged with investigation of Arian controversy. Archdeacon Athanasius argued “Christ was co-eternal and con-substantial
with the Father.” Arius
argued “God the Son came after God the
Father in time and substance.” The two sides argued and debated for about
two months, with each appealing to Scripture to justify their respective
positions. The Council ruled “the Son is true God, coeternal with the
Father and begotten from His same substance.”
● Late 320s – Bishop Athanasius develops the doctrine of the divinity and personality of
the Holy Spirit.
● 335 –First Council of Tyre ruled in favor of Arius – Christ was completely human and only a man,
not God. It fully restored Arius to his position and by 350 the Arians were
almost completely triumphant.
● 07/359 – Council of Rimini reverses the decision of First Council of
Tyre and ruled “the Son was true God, coeternal with the
Father and begotten from His same substance.”
● 381 - Council of Constantinople called to deal with the question
of the whether or not the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped. The Council ruled “the
Person of the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped and glorified together with the
Father and the Son.” However, this sparked a debate about who and what the
Holy Ghost is in relation to the Father and Son.
● 10/08/451 -- Council of Chalcedon ruled “the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are all of the same substance.”
● 11/07/675 – Eleventh Council of Toledo ruled
-- "For, when we say: He who is the
Father is not the Son, we refer to the distinction of persons; but when we say:
the Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, and the
Holy Spirit that which the Father is and the Son is, this clearly refers to the
nature or substance"
Beliefs
about the Trinity evolved through a series of conflicts from the 4th
to the mid-5th century -- and it
is still being debated in 2019. It didn’t exist at the time Jesus and he did not teach it. As a matter of fact, it
wasn’t known by Christians for
centuries after him.
Instead
of endless arguments over whether a belief is true or false, using the model
above has proven to be a much better use of time and energy – and it also results in new friendships and relationships
between those involved too.
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