You know the dress I am talking about, right? It was famous for about 48 hours. You know, the black and blue one? Oh, no, well, the white and gold one, then? Yes.
Good. We can at least agree that
you do know the dress of which I am speaking.
Mass hysteria broke out over that dress, just like over any
shiny object you put in front of media's eyes, the social type or the
infotainment type. I mean, we went
crazy.
And it was all in good fun, of course, but the debate was
heated. People would literally not
believe another person about what they saw.
"That dress is BLACK AND BLUE...LOOK!!!"
"No, you are totally wrong. WHITE AND GOLD!!!"
"You don't see white and gold. You couldn't.
It is obviously black and blue."
I mean, we would not even believe another person about what
their eyes were actually seeing. Why
would they lie about that? It would
serve no purpose to lie about such a thing.
And yet, because it was not our
experience and our eyes, we were truly befuddled by the ridiculous idea that
the dress could be any other color to another person.
Science tried to explain it.
There were reasons behind some people's eyes seeing things in certain
ways. Art tried to explain it. There were certain tones and lights used in
certain ways on screen versus real life.
But to no avail. That
dang dress was BLACK AND BLUE. Oh, or
WHITE AND GOLD!
The truth was there somewhere, hidden behind our
lenses. The dress really did have a
color in real life. There was a sure and
certain truth of the matter. Even if you
didn't want to believe it, in the end the dress was proved to actually be black
and blue.
Outside of the ridiculous world of shiny things that catch
our attention, there is a whole world full of real world, serious black and
blue dresses. Issues that have angles
and color tones and real opinions and actual, real truths.
It should be no shock to us that the feelings behind these
issues are far more intense than even the dress. But the problem is our eyes still work the
same. We simply do not believe another
person about what their eyes are actually seeing in the situation. We are befuddled by the ridiculous idea that
the dress, I mean the issue, could be any other way to any other person.
Even when given specific and genuine arguments for someone
else's point, we claim they are crazy.
Even though I give a full account as to why I see the need
for religious freedom laws to cover the consciences of people, others will not
understand. They see so differently than
me. Their lenses are framed in a totally
different worldview. I try to tell them
I see black and blue, but to no avail.
The dang dress is white and gold!
But when we turn the argument around, this works as well. Let's take another example. I literally cannot understand why someone
would think that no God exists. I look
outside and see the magnificent creation.
I see how this animal needs this other animal to survive. I see how bees tell other bees where to find
flowers by DANCING for them. I mean,
they dance. Seriously? How could there not be a creator? So, when an atheist says, "There is no
God. No one created the world," I
am like, "What the? Have you seen
bees dance?"
That dang dress is
black and blue and it seems so simple to me.
And this dress and lenses phenomenon is exactly why we need
laws to protect the religious freedoms of all people. The Christian, the Jew, the atheist, the
Muslim, the Native American, and all other people of some various faith deserve
the right to say, "Well, actually I see black and blue for these
reasons." The fact of the matter is
that sometimes the truth, the real one, will not be what is seen in their eyes,
but everyone deserves the right to speak for their faith, even when they are
seeing white and gold.
