did it frighten you?
When I was a little girl, I was baptised twice.
- Once, when I was a baby, in my mum’s family’s faith; Church of England (with thanks to Henry the Eighth for establishing that one somewhere between the Catholics and the Protestants).
-And then, when my family decided they wanted to send me to Catholic school, I was baptised again; this time in my dad’s family’s faith; as a Roman Catholic. So I had my first reconciliation and then holy communion, and my confirmation. I was a fully fledged and committed adult in the eyes of the Catholic church.
Then I went to uni and I studied science. And, being dramatic and a little bit audacious, I’d claim that I was a ‘teapot agnostic’ (because I like to think I’m an intellectual).
- Firstly, I want to point out that an agnostic isn’t exactly an atheist. It’s not like saying there is no god. They basically respect that some people believe and some people don’t believe.
- But, they will say there is no conclusive argument that will prove there is not a god (the Christian god, but equally the gods of Olympus and Valhalla). As in science has no way of establishing the existence or non-existence of any god.
- Like, it is impossible to know the truth in matters such as god and the afterlife with which Christianity and other religions are concerned; or, if not impossible, at least impossible at the present time.
But the teapot bit, yeah?
That’s Bertrand Russell. He’s a philosopher dude and he came up with the teapot to illustrate his agnosticism:
Nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.
Essentially. I don’t believe, but I think the supernatural realm could really exist. There is just no proof. I mean, if Dean and Sam Winchester appeared and told me that supernatural was real, I’d still say “bring me Cas”, you feel me? I do not have faith.
And anyway, I still am not sure any of the world’s religions quite describe that supernatural realm right for me.
So. When I heard people here talk about their supernatural realm, with absolute faith, it was hard for me to comprehend. I don’t have the mirror neurons to emulate faith (that’s a neuroscience-y thing, where you have brain cells that can mirror what you see others do or what you think they feel, so you can have empathy, frands).
Anyway, I can’t deny, when I’d heard about the singing of the ancestors, the sightings of little people (sometimes by smell or pure feeling), that there is something real and supernatural to the country up here. Or just to Australia in general. And what is that supernatural realm we have here? Why don’t we celebrate it and make it a part of our identity when this country is just so jaw-droppingly beautiful (and I don’t mean misappropriate it in an indian-headdress-at-a-music-festival kind of way). I’m intrigued by this old old faith up here, maybe because if it can’t be proven scientifically it can really be felt and seen.