Deaf people don't perceive themselves as handicapped or deficient in any way. Rather, they think that they are better off because they lack the ability to hear. They look down on hearing people.
A somewhat sweeping generalization there, which you might wish to qualify before people start picking it apart.
So you are welcome to look down on those of us who have a spiritual dimension to our lives. Maybe, like deaf people, you feel you are better off without this extension of your being.
The deaf know that sound exists. They cannot perceive it, but there is abundant empirical evidence to demonstrate that it exists.
I wouldn't say I look down on people who claim a spiritual dimension to their lives. I can't begin to understand their beliefs, but I wouldn't say that I look down on them. Neither can I see any way in which a spiritual dimension might enrich my life, which is implausibly rich already. I grew up in a religious household, and made an honest but utterly unsuccessful effort to believe. I finally had to admit that I did not and could not possibly believe the stories I was being told, and that no matter how hard I had tried to fake it, I never saw anything to them beyond a morass of rigid and restrictive superstitions. How anyone could find enrichment in that I do not know, but those who can are welcome to it. Even if I did think a spiritual dimension would enrich my life, I could not in honesty force myself to believe or pretend to believe simply because I thought belief might enrich my life. |
