We are creatures of earth, and our bonds to the earth are a much more direct experience of the divine than any disembodied system of belief. A lmost forty years ago Alan Watts wrote a small book called The Wisdom of Insecurity . It may also prove a better cornerstone for a postmodern faith than any of our explorations into spiritual traditions or scientific discoveries. This is a bold statement, so let me explain why I am so struck by Watts' prescience. When we believe something, we wish it to be the truth.
Faith requires openness and, often, the suspension of belief.
This difference between faith and belief is at the core of Watts' koan that there is wisdom in insecurity, in the absence of belief. It may, indeed, be essential for the survival of our species. Living without the security of belief in the things we wish to be true may be the most challenging evolutionary leap that human beings have yet faced. The work of Joseph Campbell, recently highlighted in the popular series of interviews with Bill Moyers on public television, has alerted us to the essential role of myth in all cultures. Wherever and whenever they live, it appears that human beings absolutely yearn to understand the world and their place in it.