Graphic by Lucas Olscamp/The Gazelle

"I can't believe some people actually don't believe in Jesus — what are they gonna do when he comes down on Judgement Day?" is a snippet of conversation I heard during a car trip back from church in Dubai two years ago. I agreed completely at the time. Some time later, after having left the faith, I recounted this story to friends. They responded, "I can't understand how they can actually believe that." I was about to reply with, "Me neither," when I caught myself. Though the idea now seemed unfathomable, my memory told me that at some point I had believed it. My worldview changed when my faith changed.

What I've come to learn about myself is that I really don't understand how other people see the world.

Words cannot come close to expressing ineffable worldviews developed through a lifetime of experiences. Al Ghazali, an influential Islamic scholar, renounced his career as an intellectual to partake in the mysticism of Sufism. In his autobiography, “Deliverance from Error,” he writes, "I learned what could be learned. The rest comes from following the path itself." He equated the difference between experiencing faith and studying it as akin to "[the difference] between drunkenness and academic knowledge of the definition of drunkenness." The prolific Christian scholar Saint Augustine struggled with Christianity in his youth, as he sought to have its truths proven to him with rigorous logical certainty. His conversion came in an experience of divine intervention, when he heard unseen voices and realized the gravity of his own sin. When reflecting in his autobiographical “Confessions,” he writes that "we are too weak by unaided reason to realize truth." In the “Discourse on the Establishment of Mindfulness” the Buddha encourages the practice of lifelong meditation as the path to understanding the Four Noble Truths. The foundational text of Daoism, the “Dao De Jing,” begins with the verse "the Dao that can be expressed is not the eternal Dao."

Pretending I understand someone else's point of view is dangerous. Absolute claims on the truth of one view over another only creates factions of "us" and "them." Differing worldviews necessarily result in irreconcilable differences. If we so choose, we can let these differences break friendships. Unfortunately, I've both seen and experienced this more than I would have liked. Al Ghazali once said, "I have learned that to attempt to refute a system without understanding it or knowing it through and through is to do so blindfold." In the past, I was obsessed with being right all the time. I've learned now that this only trapped me in a homogenous world of like-minded individuals. Personally, I don't desire for anyone to agree with my views, or even to understand them. I only hope that they will respect them.

The way I choose to see the world does lead to problems. With regard to activism, I've been told, "You can't sit on the fence of issues of discrimination," or simply "What about the law?" With regard to proselytization I've heard — and believed — that, "It is my duty to share my faith, because I want my friends to go to heaven." To be honest, I have no good answers here. All I know is that arguments over deeply-rooted philosophy offers no paths to resolution but many paths to division. My way of seeing the world is no less imperfect than any other. Imperfection is in the nature of the world.