One of Barack Obama’s law professors recently commented on his uncanny ability to wrap his mind around arguments that counter his own. The professor remarked how this strategy has served the savvy Obama well, strengthening his own arguments. After all, if your views (or you yourself) can’t stand up to critical analysis or challenge how can they stand at all?

Some people don’t care to pause, take a moment, contemplate, or challenge their views. Some people assume that where they operate from is a place of absolute certainty or expresses objective truths. These people tend to exhibit a classic defensiveness when challenged. Professors have been trying to break down this type of thinking student mind by student mind for years, yet these sorts of paper thin attitudes pervade society.

I suppose I’ve always been naturally curious and intrigued with challenging my assumptions. In my 4th – high school CCD classes (bible study for Catholics) I constantly asked questions and become irritated when the other students took everything at face value without deeper analysis. At the end of my 6th grade year I remember my religion teacher writing me a letter saying how she really dug my curiosity and commitment to understanding religion but that I needed to be patient with other students who didn’t feel the same passion and drive to expand their minds. I’ve never accepted complacent, lazy thinking well and have a hard time biting my tongue even today.

When I was enjoying a little intellectual swordplay after a particular 8th grade CCD class, I entertained the sub with one of the most important questions of my life. I asked about all the other religions in the world, people who were perhaps born on desert islands with no clue of “Jesus,” non-believers but good people, and questioned if they were recognized by God. She drew a big mountain on the marker board and said:

“Look. You see this? Imagine this is a mountain and the Big Guy (God) is at the top. See this is the path Muslims take up the mountain (she drew a squiggly line from the base of the mountain to the top).”

She paused, lowered her head, and looked up at me above the rims of her glasses. She continued:

“Hindus? Here (a very curvy line up the mountain). Catholics? (A dotted line). Jews? (a jagged line).”

I was mesmerized.

“NK people take different paths to God. Even those who live a good life the best way they know how. We all get there in the end. There are many mansions in God’s kingdom.”

That marker board image of the mountain and its many pathways to the top has always stuck with me. When I first saw it, something clicked and I remember feeling very pleased. It made sense. Even my dad, a staunch Catholic, recently said of religion, “It’s all the same shit anyway!” Beyond the intuitive sense the mountain-gram made to me, I researched that Catholic theology supports this pluralistic notion as expressed in Vatican II’s documents on ecumenism. I have always been proud to boast that my Christian faith is very comfortable with the notion of many pathways whereas other Christian traditions have sorely, notoriously lacked in this understanding.

I have always really enjoyed the intellectual history of Catholicism and appreciated its rich theology. The Church has had its issues, but corrupt people were at fault for that–not its theology. Luther’s response to this corruption was to change the theology and strip it down for the people. His intentions were good but misguided. Alas, his protest freed the people from corrupt individuals, but bound them to a reductionistic, literal, and fragmented interpretations of The Bible. Thus, most protesters (if not all) ripped the The Bible out of its contextual, historical place. But how could they consider context and history without having scholarly backgrounds?! They couldn’t. And thus, one of the great errors of history proliferated.

Since Luther’s time, The Bible would take on many disjointed forms and lose much of its metaphorical, figurative, essential meanings. Thus, the idea that “Jesus is the only, specific way to heaven” was born. The metaphorical, historically grounded, and very Biblical idea of “many paths up the mountain” was tossed out. Sigh.

Luther-minded people would eagerly create sects and branches of Christianity based on their own lay interpretations and meanings of The Bible. Over the next hundreds of years, Christian religions would resemble a shoots and ladders game. Despite all the shortcomings of its leaders, one Christian theology, one intellectual history has remained consistent since Peter’s time: The Catholic Church.

Now I know I sound like a all high and mighty Catholic here. Mostly, I just have a deep regard for its historical tradition. I also really love all its symbols, community of saints, and rituals as well (these things were also stripped down by reformers). Today, I’m not so much a practicing Catholic, but I do give it a nod from afar. Actually, my spirituality these days is closest to the comedian Larry David’s. Yes you heard right. In a recent interview he said something like this…

Am I making fun of my father-in-law’s religion [Christianity] in the show? Oh come on, no, it’s comedy…and even if I am, so what? It’s absurd [religion]. All these people walking around thinking they know everything, [they know just what/who God is]. It’s insane. They don’t know, no one knows.

Heck if I knew [the answers to everything] I wouldn’t tell anybody! I’d keep it to myself!

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So while I’m mostly amused with the absurdities of religion rather than being committed to one these days, I still have a lot of respect for my Catholic upbringing. Through some method, I hope to instill the same sense of myth, ritual, meaning and spirituality in my own children some day. Although, I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for Catholicism and its “Hey we don’t know it all…it’s a mystery…there are many metaphysical mansions and ways up the mountain…and we all have a shot at getting there” lessons I learned years ago.

This lesson of “many ways up the mountain” bleeds over into many areas of my life. Discerning relationships, contemplating career changes, child rearing, considering cultural differences, educational pursuits, accepting others, and really how to live a fairly moral and coherent life. Though I think being around like-minded people is a nice respite, I am still fairly keen on wrapping my brain around other ways of thinking. Though there is always a little equilibrium and mild panic in doing so (“Hummm, have I been doing things wrong? Do I need to change my views) ultimately I find I am able to formulate more cohesive arguments and ideas of my own. I like to think that my views are never totally impenetrable or insusceptible change, either.

Though I believe in “many ways” I also believe there are some essentials, some fundamentals, and some guiding principals to it all. I have found these things to be humanitarian in nature. Though I haven’t quite gotten the pattern down, I know it when I see it. I know it when people are traversing, zigzagging, or squiggling up the mountain. I know it when people are somehow on their way up or not. My hope is to keep taking notes on those who are plugging upwards just like me.