A Reflection on "An Inconvenient Truth" and Religion: It's a Matter of the Heart
The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is considered controversial and has led to a lot of reflection. Here Mark's reflection reminds him of an experience he had as a Baha'i youth. -gw
Mark
I think the power of a film like [An Inconvenient Truth] isn’t actually in the science itself. When I’m thinking about the things in the movie I like I’m not thinking about the statistics on CO2 emmissions over that past 20 years — I’m thinking about the feeling I gained from the movie — the perspective on my part in the greater scheme of our environment. To say that the entire merit of this film rests in it’s science seems to be ignoring the more important reason to watch this film in the first place — to inspire one’s self to take action.When I was younger and went door to door in a nearby community to invite people to a inter-faith dialogue sponsored by the local Baha’i’s, my friend and I came across one man who this whole thing reminds me of. He had gotten a degree in religious studies through a local Christian College (which I believe is now a University) and had said he once wrote a paper on the Baha’i Faith. Based on his exhaustive research (which it turned out, didn’t include actually reading any Baha’i writings) he came to the conclusion that this “cult” (as he called it) didn’t follow true religious doctrine and wasn’t a real religion. I was only a teenager at the time and barely had the cognitive ability to put together a well-formed sentence, let alone discuss the issue with this guy, so we tried to be as polite as we could, left him the invitation (it was actually for a discussion related to Race-Unity Day) and went on to the next house. The truth is, we were there only to invite people to a discussion on Race-Unity issues put on by the local Inter-Faith group, but I guess he heard “Baha’i” and decided to talk about that particular topic.
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But in later years I came to realize that while this person may have felt that he did pretty exhaustive research on the Baha’i Faith, he didn’t actually know much about the religion itself. For myself, and I think for people of all faith’s, the true importance/passion/significance of being a part of one’s religious community isn’t based on research, comparative fact-finding and scientific data, but it’s based on matters of the heart. It is about how you feel — the love and connection you have with those people in your community, and with human beings at large. I think that is where a lot of the significance of religion lies for most people.And I’m not saying that one shouldn’t do their research and investigate the “truth’s” which are presented to them — it’s very important to be unwavering in your approach to developing a sound understanding of these sorts of things. But when that is said and done, what pulls you towards a certain set of beliefs is what your heart tells you is RIGHT.
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So when I think of this film, An Inconvenient Truth, I feel that it’s merit isn’t actually so much in the science (Yes, the science is important and, if you watch the film, you can see that they did a lot of work to really make sure their science is sound — which is why I find it ironic that people would say it isn’t) but in the message they are conveying. It’s a good message. It’s an honest message. And it speaks to the heart. Maybe the science isn’t 100% there, but you know what? I don’t really care. Because what the film did for me was help me shift my paradigm to one where I’m considering new things that I might not have thought of before.+
{Re-posted with permission}
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