Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion’ inspires introspection
By Eileen Workman
Special to The Acorn

What’s most moving about Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" is that it plays like a metaphor for much of what’s wrong with our world. Unfortunately, it seems that humanity has learned almost nothing in 2,000 years. After all this time we still hate and fear the things we don’t understand, and we still pretend to preach the truth about questions without answers.

From the moment our earliest ancestors began pondering the meaning of life, two questions have burned in our minds: (1) What were we before we were born? And (2) What happens to us when we die? Each of us has an opinion, which is as it should be. But why do we care what everyone else believes? What triggers that terrible human urge to force others to see death our way, or see them dead?

To understand death is to know humanity’s ultimate fate. Much as we might care to understand how we came to be, that piece of the puzzle is already behind us. Unlike death, it’s not some unknown terror we’ve yet to face.

Faith–– belief in what we have come to accept, be it heaven, nirvana, reincarnation or some other post-death reality––is what protects us from fear of nothingness. Religion offers a structure and a sense of comfort, but not one set of beliefs out there can offer any real proof of what death brings. And since humans as pack animals are genetically programmed to believe there is safety in numbers, the more we convince others to accept our views, the more we find reinforcement in our own beliefs.

In short, the reason we care so passionately about "saving" the souls of others has less to do with altruism than it does with the nature of our egos. It’s our ego we wish to preserve through everlasting life, because it’s through the eyes of our egos that we see our own existence. Call it our soul, our consciousness or our singular personal spark, but it’s that part of us that makes us unique—and without which we can hardly imagine the universe existing.

Perhaps some day we’ll find a way to eliminate the selfish drive to force our views on others and to understand that every spiritual belief serves the same purpose—a way to explain what happens to us after death. Just as there are at least a thousand ways to climb a mountain, there are limitless ways to reach the conclusion that spirit is indestructible. The enduring "truth" about faith may be that it’s the one instance where a person’s journey will never be as important as his reward.

Come to think of it, having this opportunity to view one man’s beliefs from an alternative perspective, then to openly debate what it means, may be precisely what’s right with Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ." This assumes we use the opportunity to expand our minds and don’t descend into dogma to hide our fears. The real truth is, when it comes to what happens to us after death, none of us can be certain our beliefs are right.

How then, can we state that another’s beliefs are wrong?