A Sidenote On Trends and Individuals.

Three statisticians go duck hunting. Before long, their dog chases a duck out of some grass. The duck takes flight. The first statistician fires his rifle, shooting three feet above the duck, the second statistician fires three feet two low, and the third statistician shouts "We got 'em!"

Trends do not always reflect individual cases!

In her post about the Rasta movement, Carissa outlines some striking similarities between the Ethiopian identification with Christianity, and the Rasta identification with Ethiopia, and notes that "both movements were intimately connected with their cultural environment." This is absolutely true, but what social movement is not deeply connected to the cultural environment that created the necessity for it?

As we have discussed in class, cultures and religions do change very much over time. It is valuable to see that religion, in these two examples, does very much serve to create a sense of identity for many of their adherents. This is not necessarily true for every individual Ethiopian or Rastafari, particularly in modern times, removed from factors that directly influence the development of these belief systems. How often in every day life do many of us think of our own religious identities? Some certainly may, but I certainly don't with any regularity. It is inappropriate to analyze a belief system which is strongly based a sense of individuality, and "looking from the inside out" from a completely external point of view, that sums the purpose of the religion, as an over trend of some possible use of its adherents.

The Rastafari way should be used to analyze itself. As an individual, I can see value in believing that there is more value in interpretting life for myself than applying an algorithm to everything I stumble across. I may not choose to believe in a living reincarnation of god walking the Earth, but I see strength and ideals in a return to nature.

Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Uh! Open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied (with the life you're living)? Uh!
We know where we're going, uh!

Marley's lyrics speak not of seeing trends and analyzing the abstracts of religion, but knowing one's self, and living life with "eyes open."

Looking out from the inside, I think that the Rastafari movement and Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity are both shaped strongly from the cultures where they were born as well as the urgent needs of the people of the time, but as an individual, I know that nothing I believe could ever influence the escape of culture, and also that my uses of my beliefs are very different from the uses of others who share them. I would hate and do hate to be grouped with a cluster of people by the functionality of our shared belief. Marley, the Rastafari movement, and internal feelings can tell us, that religion is not about what the functionality of a belief is, but simply whether or not the belief is functional, to you, or me, or I-an-I, or whoever holds it.