Lost Symbols – the cause of many problems.

We all need and use symbols. Symbols refer to something that represents an unknowable. God, or Love, Goodness or Evil, or Infinity, or Wisdom, or Death, or Beauty, all commonly used words but we cannot “know” what they are. These are words that we use every day but are impossible to define, yet we all have some idea about the meaning (to us) of the concepts expressed by the words even though we can never have a full understanding of their meaning. When we are presented with something “Godlike” or experience something that cannot be known such as “Love”, or touched, such as “beauty”, we may have some ideas about what we are experiencing without being able to explain or define it. Hence there is a need for a symbol; something which expresses what we mean, or our understanding of the meaning.

Today there seems to be confusion over the meanings of the words Symbol and Idol.  A Symbol is something that represents a concept, an idea, something which is unknown, even unknowable; something which is imprecise. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. A good example of a symbol is the mathematical image: ∞, representing the concept of infinity – this useful symbol has crept into common usage. We need this symbol because we cannot “see” infinity; we cannot “touch” infinity; we know that (presumably) infinity exists but we cannot explain the concept of infinity – it just is.

On the other hand an idol is an image or other physical object accepted as representing a deity and to which religious worship is directed. This thing (even occasionally a person) is often regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion. A religious idol is often called an icon.

In this modern day and age, however, we have been so conditioned by the allure of the exactitude provided by “science”, and our apparent never satisfied desire to categorise, to analyse everything, that we no longer believe in things we cannot see. We cannot “see” God therefore God doesn’t exist. There is nothing, therefore, above and beyond human existence and human beings  are just an agglomeration of matter –  just ‘mechanisms’– that the human body is just a watertight skin bag filled with blood, flesh and bones. When we “die” that is the end, there can be nothing else because “science” says so.

This leads us to the troubling idea that if something cannot be ‘proved’, cannot be measured, cannot dissected, cannot be ‘examined’ in a scientific manner (in a laboratory or under a microscope) it cannot exist or it cannot be true. All this may be very interesting but if we destroy or diminish the importance of symbols what are we left with? We, as human beings have been reduced to believing in pure materialism. A stark “black” or “white” – it either exists or it doesn’t. This extreme materialism has devalued symbols and with this there has been a corresponding loss of values.  The wondrous nature of “Life” in all its millions of forms is diminished and reduced to the random activities of atoms and molecules.  

We cannot see “Life” yet life exists. Anyone who has been present at the moment of death when an animal or a person dies will recognise that something that was there is no longer there; something has withdrawn and death is the result. Similarly with “Love”; this most transformative of emotions is reduced, by many people to be just a pleasurable, sensory activity; we derive pleasure without a conscience. We cannot see “goodness” so it is often transmogrified into something we can see – money. If we are feeling down we may decide to apply some “retail therapy” and spend money – thus (supposedly) making us feel “good”. If someone has a great deal of money they, personally, believe they must be good and many others certainly admire and respect them. We no longer have an understanding of what it is to be human.

The wonderful – but unseen – experiences or emotions and their symbols are now so diminished in our consciousness that we demean and cheapen Life (in whatever form) to the point that we exploit all forms of Life for monetary benefit (benefiting and in effect glorifying our “goodness”). Thus there human trafficking; there is slavery (often child slavery in “sweat shops”); there is sexual exploitation – all this when money and profits are considered more important than human beings. Money and no appreciation of “Life” lead to the exploitation of animals – cruelty in farm situations (“industrial” farms with animals confined in shed or cages) and in abattoirs. This is commerce without morality; this is a desire (which, unfortunately, we all seem share) for wealth without having to work for it.

There are many symbols that we used in the past that gave comfort and a link with what is difficult to understand and possibly unknowable. For instance we understand an image of the “grim reaper” (a dark hooded figure holding a scythe) as a symbol of death. We, possibly, might use the image of a tree as a symbol of “Life”, rooted in the earth with branches reaching heavenward – spanning, birth, life and the here-after; or possibly use the image of a seed with its ability to germinate and with its unknown potential. 

The number of symbols is almost endless.

We have now lost our belief in symbols – symbols of something greater than ourselves. We are the poorer for this loss. A new “God” has arisen symbolised by the images $ or €. 

All this is not to say that slavery and exploitation did not exist in olden times – of course they did. But then people had a choice and they were aware of the consequences of their activities (either heaven or hell). Today there is apparently no choice (it is either science or nothing) and people engaged in these questionable activities seem to be unaware of the consequences – almost as if the only crime is to be caught.

We have lost our symbols and now have science without humanity.