Humanity thrives on differences

A common trait of all religious beliefs is their inability to be objectively proven, but at the same time, science is unable to prove anything that cannot be observed and tested. As a result of these shortcomings, there is no definitive understanding of the age-old mysteries of the universe and life, however, science and religion do offer us away to deal with our uneasiness, ignorance and discomfort. Religion offers a system of beliefs, practices and attitudes that alleviate our concerns about the soul, and science provides a means to satisfy our physical needs and mental curiosity.

Thanks to religion, human beings can honestly expect the essence of their being to continue existing in an afterlife, and thanks to science, we have overcome most of the problems that caused the lives of our early ancestors to be nasty, brutish and short. In effect, science gives us a relatively good life here on earth, and religion gives us hope that our inner self will continue to exist, even though there is no guarantee of an afterlife.

In spite of this uncertainty, it seems obvious that our human inner self is made up of thoughts and feelings that are produced by our sense of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Even though our identity and experience is a product of physical sensations, our inner self is necessarily subject to the laws of physics. Like the light of a star that continues to shine long after the star has grown cold, our inner self is likely to continue existing after the death of our body. In a sense, our inner self is the light of our life that is made up of memory, imagination, intellect and will, and is expressed through our character and personality.

However, even if we actually arrive in the realm of an afterlife, our disembodied inner self will no longer have the physical senses that provide the means to experience the pain, pleasure, joy and sorrow that fostered our personal development. Being in an afterlife that is devoid of mental progress and emotional growth is likely to become a boring and somewhat hellish experience — unless reincarnation is a possibility.

Because it is outside the realm of science, reincarnation is a subject for religious debate even though it is contrary to the dogma of most Western religions. Nevertheless, any plausible idea deserves some amount of fair and honest consideration. Fortunately, the restrictions and limits of religion and science do not apply to individual human beings because we have the ability to decide for ourselves the merits of any idea we choose to pursue. We are able to make assumptions about seemingly impossible things, and our assumptions are backed up by our personal knowledge and experiences, as well as by certain feelings or truths that we can neither account for nor deny. In other words, human beings have a personal store of information that may or may not be acceptable to religion, science or other people, but regardless of the rules or what others think, there are certain personal convictions that we are compelled to uphold.

Aside from an occasional guru to whom we all seem to gravitate toward, our individual differences make it unlikely we will ever be in complete agreement on any particular subject, but at the same time, we seem to have a level of understanding that allows us to tolerate our differences. Tolerance and diversity of opinion make a fertile environment for the further progress of humanity.

W. Art Carney is a resident of Wasilla.