Gird up the loins of your mind

The post title here is a reference to the Christian scriptures (1 Peter 1:13). Girding up the loins of your mind is reckoned by simple etymology to have meant “prepare your minds for action,” in other words “don’t be caught off-guard intellectually by a challenge to your present perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs.”

When it becomes public knowledge that I have abandoned Christianity in favour of atheism, some of my former Christian acquaintances will insist that God allowed me to darken my own mind and lose my faith because I persisted in disobeying biblical principles like this one, rather than humbling myself in submission to the Holy Spirit’s efforts to restore me to the fullness of God’s grace. I failed to gird up the loins of my mind…I failed to be resolute in my devotion to the Christian version of truth…I failed to ignore the persistent nagging of logic and reason…I committed the unpardonable sin – I became geniunely willing to hear and consider and respect other points of view.

In spite of the fact that this scripture reference might be used against me by some well-meaning old friends, I actually do not view the verse as absurd. Frankly, the idea of “girding up your mind” makes plenty of sense in any worldview as long as being “prepared” or “ready for action” does not prevent us from being respectful and considerate toward other views. It is perfectly acceptable to believe that we are right (since everyone inevitably believes in their own rightness), but the distinction between the Christian and the atheist with regard to girding up the mind is whether this preparation involves battening down the hatches, ensuring that the intellect will not be tempted to stray. The mind which is actively conditioned for religion is willfully in bondage, whereas the non-religious intellect knows freedom…freedom to listen, to ponder, to engage, to discern…with no fear of the world turning upside down and inside out if a different perspective turns out to be true.