Let’s remember words for what they are

With Easter’s recent passing (or Oestre, if you prefer its pagan root), I’d like to continue a discussion that some, no doubt, wish I’d just stick to – i.e., “faith & values,” like the page says.

I’ve been addressing exactly that, of course, though certain of my approaches have led detractors to wish I’d just stick it, period. I’m going to take time out for a more philosophical affair with the topic, but don’t worry, I’ll interrupt if, say, we do a Gulf of Tonkin and nuke Iran.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote to his publisher, “All of that (of) which many are babbling I have defined in my book by remaining silent about it.”

Well said, if a bit cryptic. He was just reminding us that words often cause as much crime as they solve. Here are three of the guiltiest with which I’ll dally: “faith,” “spirituality,” “God.” Common agreement, anyone?

This could be a never-ending discussion, of course, but really, how should any exploration of Really Big Things be otherwise? Besides, it’s only when folks stop talking that they start shooting, and I know which I prefer.

Believe me, I have no delusions of coming up with The Answers, but I would like to skip a few stones and see how they do before sinking.

My aim here is to get to the “happy stuff” – i.e., the many commonalities that people of all beliefs, or none, share – by looking into meanings. Words do get in the way, and if “Bible” or “Qur’an” or “Oestre,” for that matter, gets you into a tizzy one way or another, it might be well to make sure that it’s for a good reason. Words don’t kill, but people with guns, using words to justify their use, do.

I recall, from one of my old child psychology texts (Piaget, I think), that prior to the development of language, mother and child communicate perfectly. It’s only after an infant begins speaking that miscommunication occurs, language being, as it turns out, a main impediment to understanding.

It’s only been the wellspring of many, if not most, of the conflicts that have been humanity’s lot since we opened our big mouths.

Many religious and philosophical traditions know this and warn against literalism of any kind. The Christian mystics certainly did so, and I heartily recommend various books by Matthew Fox (“Original Blessing,” “The Coming of the Cosmic Christ,” “Meditations With Meister Eckhart,” etc.) to explore a more compassionate type of Christianity than the one so prominently on display today.

Let’s look at a couple of other examples, one ancient, one contemporary; one sacred, one secular.

Taoism’s the Tao Te Ching opens with this wonderful little admonition: “The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.”

Alfred Korzybski echoed these sentiments in “Science and Sanity,” his 1933 opus on semantics, saying, “A word is not the object it represents” – i.e., that words are not things, the map is not the territory, and the menu is not the meal. (Well, I added the last one, but you get the point.)

Or is your reaction, “Say what?” I’d guess that literalists will consider me the clueless one when I suggest that “(G)god” can only be spoken of metaphorically, casting a stone that not only doesn’t skip, but sinks with a huge splash.

My stance as a strong agnostic (more on that distinction another time) might also be a strike against me, for both theists and atheists, but I don’t think a contrary belief disqualifies one from discussing the matter.

Easter certainly gives people from all over the belief-faith-spirituality-god spectrum plenty of stones for skipping. Many Christians need only this one: “Jesus was killed on the cross, died for our sins, and really rose from the dead.”

Others, who might well consider themselves as devout, toss one with a different inscription: “Jesus’ resurrection was not literal, but no less ‘true’ as a metaphor for salvation, no less meaningful for being a myth.”

Those who celebrate the holiday’s pagan roots might well have rocks that yell, “Sex!” “Procreation!” “Fun and feasting!”

And, no blasphemy intended, there are the untold numbers who say, “Who cares?” and get into the water for a swim, rather than skipping stones across the surface.

One holiday, so many interpretations, dependent on those three little words: faith, spirituality, God.

Who’s got it right? I’ll paraphrase Bertrand Russell, who said that, on average – given the number of “one true faiths” across the world – everyone should assume, playing the odds, that hell awaits.

Or not. It depends on how you define it, after all.