Detectives

Rufus Sewell as Zen

I watched the third and final episode of the new PBS Masterpiece presentation, Zen, last evening. I think it was a top-quality production of an excellently written teleplay adaptation. I recommend it.

My father and my uncle were police detectives. I was raised in an atmosphere of analysis of everyday events and human behaviors. Nothing is as simple as it seems under the detective's examination. Unfortunately, in the case of my father and uncle, their detective skills were never applied to their own psychological make-ups.

I have tried to learn from their mistakes and my own. I cannot help analyzing my environment and the behavior of those in it. It appears to be hard-wired in my personality. However, I try to analyze my own filters over those observations. Understanding those filters is a crucial part of the detecting process. 

Scientists are detectives by nature. Another PBS show, History Detectives, illustrates this point. Detecting is not predicting or proving a foregone conclusion. Like science, detecting involves hypotheses and gathering experimental data to reach a theory or solution. 

Humanists are committed to a scientific view of reality. Rather than accepting dogma which explains the why and how of existence, we are committed to explore our own existence with a scientific consciousness. This is a challenging way to live. There is never a totally sure thing in the scientific or detective mind. And, in the humanist's mind, there is always the next question, leading the way to the next exploration of what life is all about. 

Personal practice is the exercise that builds scientific muscle. By using my own life as a laboratory, I am maintaining the tools to stay open-eyed and inquisitive about life and my environment. Sleuthing my own personal truth and the workings of my reality is much more interesting than following any rote dogma of religion.