Belief Needs to be Tasted

I recently finished reading a memoir called Educated about a woman whose parents did not believe in traditional education, so she had to self teach in order to get into college. She later went on to earn a Ph.D from Cambridge. Her family happened to also claim my same religious beliefs, but certainly did not live them. Their version of my faith was so perverse and manipulative, in fact, I understand why the author had to leave it entirely as part of her journey.

The story was inspiring, but it also bothered me. It wasn't necessarily the fact that her parents left a horrible impression of the religion - the author was very direct in her Author's Note about how the book is not a portrayal of Mormonism. I suppose what really bothered me was the author's personal experience with the faith, which the parents used as a means of instilling fear, compliance, and subjugation.

Any belief, whether it be religion, philosophy, politics, or lifestyle cannot truly be forced on someone. In this case, it was exactly this strategy which drove the author away, once she had escaped the invisible bonds under which ignorance had placed her. The human mind seems hard wired to resist tyranny, though it often takes a hero's journey to overcome it.

My experience with my beliefs sits in sharp contrast. My parents planted the seeds of the beliefs in me when I was young, but encouraged me to cultivate that belief myself. They understood that if I was the one putting forth the effort to explore, challenge, ponder, and apply those beliefs, it would gain a deeper root within my soul. They also had to mitigate that fear that I would also never put out the effort to do so.

Living any sort of belief takes a great amount of sacrifice. The essence of a belief is that you are giving up one choice to latch onto another. You are giving up meat to live as a vegan. You are renouncing the agenda of the Democrats to be a staunch Republican, you are rejecting any sort of mysticism to adhere to empiricism. You are choosing faith over skepticism if you choose to believe in God.

Such sacrifice can only be attained and maintained if you taste the belief. This is not an original metaphor. When I read it, though, it made instant sense. Unlike seeing, hearing, or smelling, tasting and feeling are concrete, proximate, definite. There is no convoluting media through which they must travel. They cannot be manipulated or distorted with smoke and mirrors. When we taste or feel the results of our beliefs, we have an intimate witness of that belief that no amount of outside argument can destroy.

Could one convince my son that gelato in Rome doesn't taste heavenly?

Similarly, can one argue that I have not tasted of the goodness of God? The notion defies reason. That is my experience. I know that I have had it not once, but hundreds of times. No amount of opposition or attempted logic can convince me otherwise.

At the risk of erring too much on religious belief, since I argue it applies to any sort of belief and helping another come to that belief, here is a video that has stuck with me:

Music of the Gospel

If we wish others to join our belief in the goodness of that Roman Gelato, or the positive effects of herbal remedies, or the beauty of scientific experimentation as a means to knowledge, we first need to get the word out, but then we must encourage them to try it for themselves. Only then can they internalize and share in our belief.