Parables

(Or why Doctor Who is my Religion)

There is a great power in a story. A specific kind of power that seems to exist nowhere else. All of the great prophets and philosophers (well the good ones at least) realized that there is no better way to illustrate the point you're trying to make than with a good engaging story.

Stories engage a different part of the mind than facts. They engage our emotions and sink deeper into us than the same information thrown at us as facts. An interesting fact will engage our minds, but a story? That will touch our very souls.

That's why we keep telling them. Sometimes the same stories a thousand times. There's a reason that Jesus spoke in Parables. They give a clear message when all the rest of the world is confusing and conflicted. They give us blacks and whites when all we can see is grey. It's the point of a parable.

The other great strength of a story is that we become so deeply attached to our stories. A good story becomes more then just words. They become friends that we care deeply about. We have passionate arguments about the minutia contained within. And sometimes we want so desperately for the world to make as much sense as our stories that we decide that it does.

It's the answer to the question of why intelligent people can be suckered in. By con men, by quackish religions (not all are quackish just some) and dangerous cults. And that's the thing. We want that parable. We want that story.

I think that's why we're starting to see scientific thought finally over take the old religious ones. Science is finally starting to give us things that we can tell stories about. Our technologies are catching up to the fiction.

Which is enough of a segue to talk about the subtitle of this post.

My family's religion, is Dr. Who.

Now not everyone I'm related to, but the ones in my direct family. Twice a year, once in Sept and once at Christmas we sit together as a family and have what is, to me at least, a religious experience. Because in the Doctor we are presented with a God-like force for good in the universe but one that avoids the problem of Evil, and is not bound by the tyranny of Facts. I can watch the Doctor and learn from the lessons presented, simple lessons about perseverance and doing what's right not what's easy. I don't need to worry about if the Timelords are real. I'm not weighted down with the burden of proof. I can just ponder... What would the Doctor do? And let this parable help me sort through my best choice of action.

I can let the story tell me the right thing to do.