The believing bumblebee
By Luiz Leite
The great Russian writer Anton Chekhov said once that man is what he believes. With all due respect Chekhov was not saying anything new. He simply echoed what others had already uttered before him. Man is what he believes indeed. No man can go any further beyond that line his own beliefs have drawn. In a certain way we supposedly should be in charge of our own destiny and that is tightly bound to our set of beliefs. We are to accomplish what we believe.
A famous quote by Mary Ash Kay says that “aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway.” The bumblebee “believes” it can fly. It will take off and go on flying even though many would say it is not possible. They have a secret. They just keep flapping. Even when the laws of aerodynamics say “no” a believing bumblebee will take off. Somehow this is in line with Jesus’s teaching about faith. No matter what the situation is, everything is possible if one just believes. Just keep praying and trusting no matter what.
It all depends on the point one starts. If you are a believer your faith in God will see you through, but if you do not believe in God… The atheist existencialist French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre put things this way: “Christians start from the postulate ‘God exist.’ I set out from the postulate: ‘God does not exist.’” This starting point is the very foundation upon which each person will build up his/her life. If an atheist says that God does not exist and that religious belief is a bunch of nonsense, a believer does not need to feel insulted with that. Considering the atheistic postulate no religious belief will ever make sense in any way.
Let the atheist think he is just an inteligent carbon unity wandering and babbling around with no purpose; and let also the believer think he is an inteligent, espiritual being created with a purpose. If we at least manage to love and respect one another in spite of all differences, we will have accomplished a great and significant thing. One thing is for certain: People will end up receiving what they believe. If one believes in Jesus, in eternal life, let him/her go be in heaven with Jesus; if one believes in nothingness, then let him/her go his/her way into nothingness. It is such a pity that so many people created after the image of God shall end up as “nothing”.
As for myself, even though atheism says there is no God or heaven this bumblebee here will keep flapping.
