Reverence has a complimentary attitude, irreverence. Our drive to reverence is not necessarily a drive to religiosity, and many people gloat at the idea that they are irreverent thinkers, that they hold nothing sacred. To paraphrase Jesus, “They know not what they do.”
Irreverence has its place when it stems from innate human reverence. When you accept reverence as an attitude, it does make clear that some things are not to be revered. Like, oh say, money, and being mindful of this can be healing, strengthening. But desecrating the human heart, devaluing love or imagination, crushing dreams and the love of life those feed. This is not in any way valid, or smart, or holy.
The charlatans prey on the reverence void in people? They do. Even the most atheistic person has the instinct of reverence, and it can be and has been exploited and repeatedly. It’s rather common.
The “stand for something or fall for anything” principle seems to fit. It is true. If you revere nothing than anything can seem valid which is very often an attitude that leads to martyrdom or suicide.
So could atheists revere solid facts? They can, and humanist principles as well. They do have firm reverence for these things.
This is how atheists have morality? With reverence? Yes, and it is what justifies their atheism in their view, but in turn they will fall into objectification of things that don’t remind them of their principles of things, such as human liberty. Many have no qualms against animal experimentation say, so the scope of their reverence is generally narrow. How do you feel friends? Should reverence have a narrow scope? Perhaps not an easy question to answer, but I’m all ears.
Hmmm, that seems dangerous. I agree fully.
If reverence is like love, then should apply to all? Reverence is like insight, and can be driven by love.
It would be impossible to love without reverence? Yes. To truly love, it would be unhealthy without reverence.
But reverence for what things truly are and not your projection? I would say projection needs reverence also. Personal projections first need reverence for the very reason they are personal. They are an expression of your own being, but very often they are also twisted by emotional scars. Impressions that were based on a non-reverence for the life process. You will not stop projecting. Your brain works. Your brain works by projecting.
What do you mean by personal projections? Well, say I don’t like apples. This is nothing literal about apples, and I could tell myself that because I don’t like apples, apples are bad. That step is the twisted part, but the first is valid. It’s ok if I don’t like apples. It’s a projection, because it’s the complimentary mental process to perception. You perceive and at the same time project. This is why schools like Buddhism teach that when you perceive the world you are perceiving yourself, and no one part of that perception of the world self is you by definition. To say any one projection is self is like saying you can only eat cheese. Puts you seriously out of touch with reality.
Self image is a projection. An object you have created in your mind that serves as a synopsis of your life experience as you have judged it to be. If kept simple it would do no harm, but people dramatize it, and it becomes the motivating factor for almost all harm, if not all.
Give it too much reverence? Give it not enough. If they revered the self image more they would not engage in the mental shorthand and gross simplification that makes them generalize/objectify all of their life experience. Generalization = mistaken simplification = objectification = ignorance.
If reverence is to respect something as it is and allow it to be, then dramatizing the self image narrows it, corrupting the vision and reverence for all it is. Exactly.
If you revere nature, you aren’t saying you like nature. But you recognize its place, its value, and its breadth beyond your understanding, and you will consider carefully your behaviour in it. This illustrate reverence more clearly?
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~