"An infidel said to Muhammad, I will believe you when this lizard does, and pulled a green lizard from his sleeve."
This tiny story comes from the oral tradition of Islam. And yet, small as it is, it has big implications for what we are supposed to believe in on the verge of a Global Age.
Of course, today many people say they don't believe--some very loudly, some not. The quiet ones can't even be bothered to call themselves atheists. For such people, non-belief brings a sort of peace--because they really are done with God. They have no expectations apart from this world and are content to rest within it, and work within it, to be equitable and fair within it. They rarely despair over the non-existence of God or contemplate suicide. They are resolved to endure its hardships and enjoy its blessings for as long as they possibly can. The one thing they never do is write books on atheism. They have no score to settle and no anger to vent. What would be the point? The true atheist is as rare as the true believer, because peaceful souls are rare.
That leaves the rest us somewhere in the middle, saying we believe, and maybe wanting to believe, but with the kind of belief that can't pass the test of a lizard.
The infidel in the story is not a believer. That much is clear. But he is willing to believe, provided Muhammad can pass the test. "Make this lizard believe you, and I will believe," he demands. "Show me that you are believable and I will believe."
I live in a house in the woods surrounded by wetlands on every side but one. That means that at this time of year, even when it's been dry for awhile, the frogs sing day and night. I sometimes wonder if they believe in me as much as I believe in them. They sing for me as they slip in and out of God's watery sleeve, coming and going from the world just as they have on this same strip of land for many thousands of years. They are messengers, I suppose, testing my belief to see whether it is real yet.
And when will the answer be yes? When will my belief be real?
I can't answer that question for myself. Only the frogs can--which I suppose means that the answer can only come from God. God tells us when we believe because that is the moment we find peace within this world--when we are content to rest within it, and work within it, to be equitable and fair within it. When we are resolved to endure its hardships and enjoy its blessings for as long as we possibly can, simply because we love it and feel ourselves belonging within it as snugly and as simply as frogs. But that is a hard thing for human beings to attain. How hard it is to be simple.
Then again, what choice do we have? Not being simple has brought us to the edge of ruin. Belief is the answer, but I don't believe that creeds and catechisms are. I don't believe that ideologies or programs or initiatives are. We simply need to realize that we are where we are supposed to be and always have been. Earth is where we live, and Allah IS the small green lizard. That is what it means to believe.
If atheists wants to challenge that sort of belief, they are free to do so, but I'm hard pressed to tell the difference. True atheism and true belief are both very rare. Meanwhile the rest of us stand together in numbers, poised at the brink of an abyss in the vast the middle ground of a species that thinks it has some destiny apart from Nature--which is the same as thinking it has some destiny apart from God. Belief would be one solution. Non-belief would be another. And both are sustainable. Only half-belief lacks a clear future. And one way or another, the Age of Half-Belief is coming to its close.
Blessing to all, and an invitation to dialogue on all of this....
