Transformation Machines

3Paradigm Shift

Saturday July₂₅ 2009 · ‹Personal› · ‹Philosophy› · 2726 Views
 

15 years ago, I was 20 years old and had an interesting encounter with a stranger on a ski lift. He was around 30 and he asked me if I had read the bible. I said I had not. He returned that by reading the bible he understood the meaning of life. While I did not think of reading it back then, I told myself, when I turn 30, I would give it a shot.

11 years later, December 2004, I turned 31. I remembered the encounter with the stranger and the task I had given myself. I had not read the bible yet, nor was I going to. I just did not feel like it.

However, I was curious about God. I figured, it was time to address the question of God's existence. Until then, I did not deny, nor did I believe in God. I had simply put aside the question and left all options open to myself, or so I thought.

I wondered what it meant to believe in God. I had a vague idea of what God was like, but how would the world be different if I did believe in God? Obviously, the existence of God matters.

Soon, I realized that to answer this question, there was no way around actually believing in God. A belief cannot be hypothesized about. You either believe in something or you do not.

I remember quite vividly: I was standing in the living room of my apartment, near the middle of the carpet. I imagined that one half of the carpet, the side I was standing on, was the side without God, and the other side of the carpet was the world with God.

Staring at the carpet, I imagined a big abyss separating the two sides. It was only about two feet wide, but it seemed infinitely deep. It is an easy hop if you are not afraid of height. But when you feel the void in between, it takes a lot of courage to jump across.

The abyss was a mental manifestation of my fear. It was the fear of starting to belief in something without any rational bases. After all, our entire education has taught us to think rationally. So, in order to overcome my fear, I would need faith.

But there was also a more concrete fear of not being able to “come back”, once I got to the other side. I was afraid that my worldview would forever change; I would have to let go of my current worldview.

I hesitated for a moment, but then I tricked myself by asking a rhetorical question: what is the worst that could happen?

 
I took the leap.
 

Immediately after I landed on the other side, everything changed. Within an instant I understood the difference. Where there was cold, there was warmth. Where I felt disconnection, everything seemed connected. Everything matters. I felt love and appreciation. I was excited.

Moreover, I realized that this new worldview was not exclusive, it was inclusive. I could jump back to my old worldview whenever I wanted. I happily jumped around on my carpet experiencing and enjoying the different worldviews and their characteristics. The abyss was gone.

If there was anything like a paradigm shift I experienced, this was it. It was a clear change, a turning point in my life. After that, I experienced several minor paradigm shifts, or “enlightenments”, but nothing comparable.

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