April, 29th 2017 — Morality and faith
This article is part of the series “What is like to attempt suicide and fail”. Start there, if you have not read it yet.
Saturday, D Day + 22
The big event this Saturday was a group therapy meeting scheduled to last one hour and organized by the bad cop psychologist of whom, as expected, I like a little more already.
Theme was free, everyone just talk what they want. It starts fine, things get more or less messy, with people telling you about their problems, it gets organized somehow in the middle of the road with a bumping end. But it was a great exercise.
One of the participants touched me deeply in his way of thinking, facing life and death, questioning the frugality of being and thinking trivially and decisively, even about the more complex issues. I cried a lot as he spoke. But I’ve been crying for anything, keep that noted.
I expressed myself very little, and only in points that I considered to be silent as an unnecessary gesture of omission. My first intervention was to say that we are all equal in the capacity for error, for deception. And we easily find in other the problems we have ourselves. We accused the robber when our hands are dirty. I do not know if I’m right, but that’s what I said.
It made me think of all the times in my life when I was able to accuse others, to see the speck in my neighbor’s eye without noticing the plank that was in mine. Yes, in spite of being an atheist, I am passionate about some biblical texts, like this one in Matthew 7: 5, which talks about hypocrisy.
Another time I thought it was good to talk was when one of the colleagues mentioned our morality comes from our faith and religiosity. I raised my hand and said, faintly, what people like Sam Harris have said much longer with much more brilliance and content.
But I have come to cite how some examples of ethics and morals of our day simply do not fit in the context of faith, Christian in the case of chat. Things like female submission, physical punishment of children and others. I recommend the following video and watch what you can of Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens (there will be much more to this subject).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPvP0yCI8c----
I will post more tomorrow. I’ve created a list of songs I’m listening to while inside the psychiatric clinic. To listen, subscribe to the “After Death” playlist on Spotify.
If you want to talk to me, write to rodrigo@bressane.com.
Be kind,
Rodrigo Bressane
