I Believe In Nothing

Infinity Bites 3

Everything’s falling away. What I used to think of as safe or even sacrosanct is dissolving as the onion layers are devolving. There’s a very real possibility that the last peeling back will reveal at the centre of the ball… big fat nothing at all.

“I don’t believe in anything” is my latest, greatest credo. “Hah! So you believe in nothing”, the clever clogs amongst you might gleefully declare. “Your belief is that nothing is to be believed in, which is, in itself, simply a belief, so try again, wise guy!”

Yes And No, Brian

Yes, but no. I’m not saying I believe in nothing; rather that I don’t believe in anything, which you can hardly say is a belief in itself.

I’ve had this problem with religious people who seem to think that the onus is on the sceptics to prove that their particular version of the universal invisible friend isn’t real. That’s really quite hard, like trying to prove that there isn’t another planet out there inhabited by folks a bit like us. Or completely green with three heads and hair made of spaghetti, for that matter. Or that there isn’t someone, somewhere, who loves eating chocolate coated snails for breakfast.

Who’s Mad?

You get the point; until you’ve looked everywhere, you can’t say, with absolute certainty, that all manner of oddities and highly-unlikelities don’t exist. Maybe Elvis and Michael Jackson are living in extraterrestrial bliss on the dark side of the moon, developing Nevergrace Moonland for future space tourists as I speak – prove it ain’t so!

But the onus isn’t on me to prove that their random fantasy isn’t real. It’s for them, if they are so insecure in their delusion – understandably so – to try and convince me that it is. But who has the time to listen to that, right? There are crackpots on every street corner and TV channel trying to persuade us that their worldview is the only one worth considering. Please!

What Goes Up…

Back to the clever clogs, they might say, well, I guess you believe in gravity, don’t you? I mean gravity, and electricity and the sun and your kids, they’re all pretty real, right?

And I’d answer that no, I dont believe in them. They’re not a religion. I’m not gonna worship the fact that I don’t fall off the planet. Religions tend to be based on believing and of course venerating things you can’t see or easily prove. Indeed, trying to prove or disprove them is frowned upon as really not in the spirit of the thing… The smart thing is to be as dumb as possible when it comes to not rocking the big BS boat.

If released onions appear to fall downwards and the sun seems to shine warmly most mornings and my kids often read school books or watch TV, I’m not gonna start some crazy cult based on my wacko belief that my daughter’s studying for an exam and that everyone else should believe it too, or else we’ll go on a crusade and massacre all the infidels and miscreants that think it ain’t so. She just is. The sun just does. Onions just do.

Believe It Or Not

I admit that belief can be tricky, though, and we can easily get caught out and tripped up on entrenched ideas we aren’t even aware we have.

It’s not difficult to realise that saying my local football team’s the best is a bit biased, to say the least. Even if it is true occasionally, it’s probably not true all the time, every time. Remember when we got crucified 7-0 by Arsenal last year? We weren’t exactly the best then, were we?!

But we might have beliefs which only become apparent to us when some ~~idiot~~ person with an alternative viewpoint sneakily slips into our sphere of awareness by our blind spot.

I happened to know without a shadow of a doubt, for example, that my way of peeling oranges was definitely the best way, backed up by the rock solid fact that that was the way my mum did it. What more evidence could any sane person need? Only, I then met quite a few folks over the years who held similar beliefs for equivalent reasons but on different fruit disrobing techniques.

My Belief’s Better Than Your Belief

What was going on? Did the unstoppable force of the slicing-into-quarters squad manage to overcome the immovable object of the meticulous peeling posse? Nope. Something much more profound happened. My beliefs started to melt (often to avoid stupid arguments and keep my current girlfriend, admittedly). At first silly certainties about trivial topics – although they didn’t seem so at the time – like how to peel an orange, started to evaporate. Then weightier matters, such as football team allegiances, nationalities and faith systems. And now, finally, everything.

I don’t believe in anything anymore, and I’m not just saying that. Really, I don’t. What is, is. And what isn’t, isn’t. And it isn’t even for me to say what that is, or indeed, isn’t. What do I know? Nothing. Do I know that I know nothing? God knows. But then, I don’t know what god is, either. Does it matter? Does what matter? Have you been listening? Nothing matters and everything matters, if you want it to.

Looks Like Rain

So, the bottom line is, I don’t go around trying to convince people to peel oranges or onions the same way I do. I don’t force people to support my team, respect my country or follow my faith (which I don’t have, of course). And I certainly don’t insist that good citizens shouldn’t believe in anything at all – how nuts would that be?

I did briefly consider standing on a soapbox in Hyde Park Corner a few decades ago, to spout my world-shattering wisdom from the height of my 23-and-a-half years to see what would happen, but I think it was raining.

Now, if everything’s falling away, when all the layers have been peeled off right down to the core, what’s actually at this famous “core”? What do we find? What’s left, when everything we weren’t born with has been washed away with the soap suds? Who are we, and what’s the point of doing anything at all?

Getting To The Point

And the point is, my friends… there isn’t one. Or doesn’t seem to be, to me, anyway. Not that I believe there isn’t one, you understand. I’m just saying it as I see it. Which might sound a bit depressing, but look at it this way: if there have ever been moments, in all of your existence that you’re aware of, when you’ve had some sort of nice feeling, of any kind, isn’t that a sign? Isn’t that enough? The fact that we don’t seem to be able to do much about our own existence, or lack of it, might also spur us on to come to terms with cultivating a reasonably positive outlook or optimistic attitude in the here and now.

Or you could just retreat into cantankerous old bastardom and have done with it. Believe me, I wouldn’t blame you for it these days, and quite a few people have made that choice. But if you do that, you might just be perpetuating the problems rather than ushering in the solutions. But hey, I’m not gonna cry about it. After all, there are countless ways to peel an orange or chop onions and the best one is probably that which you are most comfortable with and don’t cut yourself in the process. And I believe that’s all I have to say on the matter. But I may be wrong.

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Sab has been exploring the creative human experience in Paris for over 25 years. He writes words, makes pictures and encourages connectedness every day. He thinks that being creative on a regular basis is a wonderful way to lead a worthwhile, enriching and generous life. He’d love to help you make the most of your infinite potential too, creatively and authentically…

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