We often live in a world that presents as very black and white, without room for the nuance and complexity of humanity. This binary way of thinking can sometimes be exacerbated for Christians who ascribe to a rigid or restricted understanding of our faith. But, we serve a God that invites questions, meets us uniquely where we are, and is big enough to hold a broad spectrum of our experiences and perspectives. Join the blog team in exploring the multitudes that God contains and the beautiful range of what he is inviting us into.
Everything and everyone in our world seems to be moving at a more and more blistering pace.
Warp speed!
Technology is truly breathtaking, but also socially taxing. Its speed and reach seems to be taking its toil on our western world's individual and collective psyches. The A to Z, plodding linear path of last century's industries has been replaced by the Internet's 24/7, non-linear ways.
Its effects are instead expanding in every direction, all at once - like the crack of a hammer strike on glass. Our desktop computer-driven promise of streamlined productivity for our work and home to-do lists is well realized, but stress, anxiety and resulting relational separation has increased as well.
Like a big bang of random chaos.
So in all this, what is binary thinking? First of all, know that it's universally common and absolutely necessary! A more left-brained, literal way of thinking, it relies on simple cut-and-dry absolutes - good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, black vs. white, for example. Solid physical science and technology demands it because the development, operation and maintenance of our cities, health care, infrastructure and much more literally depend on it.
But binary thinking is only one aspect of our human and spiritual experience, and with all our technological advancements, it's affecting our non-binary side too and creating an imbalance. A non-binary perspective encompasses art, feelings, creativity, sensitivity, empathy, and essential components of our relationships.
It also encourages and improves our contemplative spiritual health. It asks for and makes space for our developing faith, and the wonderful mysteries of God. And perhaps best of all, it teaches us to be in all our moments, instead of rushing through them.
Our western culture has made amazing tech gains, but suffered critical emotional losses.
So why did we split ourselves up into two sides? It can be traced back to Aristotle and Socrates, who helped develop the idea of dualism, and its emphasis on binary thinking.
A quick (I promise) dualism explanation: Their premise is that we humans and our consciousness are not naturally integrated into a cohesive whole (connectedness), and our reality is strictly divided into two fundamentally different, dual parts - the immaterial mind and the physical body (we think vs. we feel).
It turns out that splitting ourselves this way isn't an emotionally healthy way to operate, and we humans naturally favored the binary to “get stuff done.” Then we chose a false sense of certainty through our religions - the law. This imbalance inadvertently gave power to counterfeit religious systems (like the Christianized Roman Empire), to"fix" individual sin and exercise control. In this widening notion of a split self, science marched forward, while authentic, compassionate religion diminished.
I believe this is at the heart of our current cultural wars, manifesting itself in circling our church wagons, tribal thinking, and mean-spirited arguments. It isolated all of us Children of God - the churched and unchurched! And it's a division of our own doing.
Also the knowing (binary) is so much simpler than the not knowing (non-binary). We haven't really been taught how to live out a God mystery (non-binary) and have replaced it with absolute certainty (binary).
Whew, hang in there!
Lastly, I think the speed and pressures of our cultural changes, combined with our inherent and insecure doubts of faith, plus the relative comfort of our technology has made it harder to reclaim our authentic spirituality.
But the truth is, it's all spiritual, and everything belongs.
I believe we believers need to slow down in our moments, regroup, venture out of our church comfort zones and get back to the well-balanced middle of things.
I am hopeful. God will help us fix this!
About the Author
Terry is a man in constant motion to explore new horizons. He has a thirst for new places and faces, and a deep love for the natural world - with a weakness for waterfalls and sunsets. All of this venturing out helps to both ground and inspire him, because it opens him up to people, with their vast, collective array of experiences, outlooks and responses.
He finds all of this fascinating and sees that it has encouraged the growth of something crucial in his Christian development: empathy and compassion toward his brothers and sisters on this planet.