My heart is breaking as I hear stories of survivors in Orlando and descriptions of the incident.  I wipe away tears as I write.  My thoughts are spinning as I consider what’s going on in our world. I’m looking for the big picture, the unifying structure that explains everything. Every time some horrible thing happens, I try to figure out why it happened.  What were the motivating and contributing forces that combined to give it birth?

I have a deep, insatiable need to understand things, to put them in context, to know why things happen the way they do.  I have difficulty accepting things just because somebody says so.  I find discrete facts to be boring. It’s not enough just to know and accept something. I need to know how facts relate to each other and why things work the way they do. Otherwise, facts are meaningless.

It there a way to make sense of mass shootings?  Is there some way to prevent them?  Let’s examine some traditional paradigms.

Religion once defined truth and was it’s arbiter.  But religious leaders, subject to the vices and weakness of all humanity failed in that task.  As a result, many have become disillusioned and discard religion altogether.  Inestimable good has been done in the name of religion, but also much evil.

Philosophers from ancient times to the present have attempted to use reason to discover and understand truth. Of the endless systems of thought devised by philosophers, each is intelligible only to those who devote their lives to defining that system. But even to them truth remains illusive. Each system is unintelligible to the layman. Therefore, the mass of humanity outside those esoteric and recondite bastions of introspection finds little of practical value in them.

In this age of hubris and enlightenment, Science has claimed to be the holder and protector of truth. It has the advantage of being something tangible. Religion and philosophy are abstract, intangible and difficult to grasp. Being flesh and blood, we grasp what we can see. Cause and effect are readily understood and easily demonstrated. Therefore, having rejected religion and having little use for the mental gymnastics of philosophy, many turn to science for answers. It becomes their god.  But it too fails us. It deals with the material reality but is of no use in the immaterial reality.

A bridge between philosophy and science, humanism rose to prominence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is subscribed to by many intellectuals today. There are many variations within humanism but they hold in common the belief that humanity is at the center of everything.  Critical thinking and evidence are all that are needed to derive an ever upward evolution of the human species toward perfection. Superstition, religious dogma, mysticism and the metaphysical are discarded.  For them, the only reality is that which can be tested and measured.

What IS reality?  Are we just actors in some cosmic play being manipulated by a master puppeteer beyond our comprehension?  Speculations about multi-universes, metaphysics, aliens, multiple dimensions and other esoteric concepts make us question what is real.  Advanced technologies lead us to places where reality and imagination become indistinguishable.  We live in a time where everything is questioned and where many of the confident answers of yesterday fall inadequate. Materialism is our flesh and blood reality.  But what of love, of our quest for meaning, of our hunger for connection to something beyond ourselves, of our innate sense of right and wrong, of altruism?  Why does every culture seek understanding beyond themselves that takes the immaterial form of a god?  This is the realm of metaphysics.  Science cannot go there.  It is the other part of reality.

I’ve long been fascinated by litmus paper.  I first leaned about it when I got a chemistry set as a child.  Dip it in a liquid and it changes color indicating the strength of an acid or base liquid.   Called the “litmus test”,  it becomes a metaphor for something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that is used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable.  When we had a moral question, once we turned to a priest, imam, guru or other religious leader who supplied the answer.  That worked so long as we lived in homogeneous and isolated societies.  Today we have instant access to the entire world of thought, custom, belief and practice.  Traditions and customs come into conflict within our heterogeneous world.  If only we could apply a litmus test to the things that we hear, read and observe, we could determine “THE” truth.

Today, with Internet and satellite communication we have instant access to what’s going on in the world and the ability to dialogue with almost any person on the planet.  Information is difficult to verify because sources are no longer accountable to standards of truth or morality.  There is a constant clash among religions, cultures, traditions and philosophies each claiming superiority and aspiring to dominance and control.

What do we see in the Orlando massacre?  A clash of belief, culture, survival and meaning. It is a subset of the world stage where the natural state of humanity is to seek of power which is measured by money and control and pride.  Control includes territory, possessions, dominance over the thoughts and actions of others and vengeance.  Pride encompasses ego, survival, self-justification, selfishness, greed and identity.   So it looks something like this:

POWER

-Money

*Territory

*Possessions

-Control

*Dominance over thoughts and actions of others

*Vengeance

-Pride

*Ego

*Survival

*Self justification

*Selfishness

*Greed

*Identity

~Belief

~Culture

~Meaning

So what is the answer?  No single answer is sufficient to address the complexity of the problems that we face.  Some might say, “Jesus” or “Muhammad” or some other figure but those answers by themselves are meaningless.  It needs to be much more granular than that.  Power is the ultimate selfishness.

The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil—not money itself, but the love of money.  Money itself can represent pride, or compassion, survival or luxury.  The issue is how money is used and how it is regarded.  If it is a means to a righteous end, then it is a blessing. If it is used to add enjoyment to life, then it can also be a blessing. If it is used for purely selfish ends, then it is evil. There are matters of degree, of course and each person must honestly and deliberately weigh how he or she manages money.  But if one does not use a portion of his or her discretionary money to help others, then some self reflection is in order.

Control is a virtue if used for altruistic ends.  If it is used to deprive others of their free will, or pump up one’s self-esteem, then it is evil.  There is no place whatsoever for vengeance.  It only perpetuates and escalates wrong.  Vengeance is the author of much of the world’s unrest.  Though very difficult, forgiveness is the only answer if one is to have peace in the world and in one’s heart.

Finally, we come to pride, the most difficult of all.  Ego, the survival instinct, self-justification, selfishness and greed are pretty much self explanatory.  But let’s expand upon identity.  Our concept of who we are and how we fit in with the rest of our contemporaries is essential to our mental health and stability.  It is the cohesive force that governs our behaviors, attitudes, thoughts and inner sense of well being.  There are many markers of identity including gender, sexual constitution, physical characteristics and DNA, intelligence, aptitudes, talents and life experience.  One’s family and culture are powerful influences.  One’s socio-economic station also plays a role.  There is an overlay of tradition, societal expectations and norms.  In addition there is a belief system that is handed down from parent to child.  As children become adults, they may modify or reject some family traditions and cultural values.  They will almost always examine and challenge the belief system with which they were raised. Depending upon cultural and parental pressure, conformity may be a requirement for acceptance.  Certain personality types will resist conformity and others will easily accept it.  All of these factors make up one’s identity.

As adults, we must take responsibility for managing our pride.  Humility and generosity are effective antidotes for pride.  With respect to identity, it is highly individual.  One’s beliefs are strong and important.  One’s beliefs can and should be shared, discussed, even debated, but never compelled.  Those who hold other beliefs must must be respected and accepted.  One’s culture should be appreciated, even celebrated, and above all, respected by others.  One’s beliefs and culture give their identity meaning.  We must find ways to co-exist by respecting and accepting our differences.  Promote understanding!  Pray for the families and everyone effected by this tragedy.  That includes the killer’s family, the evil cancer that is ISIL/ISIS, for the angry, disaffected, hopeless men and women who fall prey to their message, for Muslims, Christians, Atheists and all who place their hope in something beyond themselves.  May we find understanding, forgiveness and peace.  And beyond prayer, may we all examine ourselves and pursue peace and goodwill in ourselves and toward others.