With the recent passing of the wonderful comic, George Carlin , there were many testimonials and tributes to his career as well as to his knowledge and use of words, what they mean and what we make them out to be. The words “belief” and “believing” have morphed into many meanings, some of them voiced as self righteous indictments for those who don’t share the same beliefs.

“Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.” George Carlin

Karen Armstrong in her presentation for the 2008 TED wish: Charter for Compassion , provides a suggestion for an  older and different meaning of the word belief.  Treating the word belief as a verb, she teaches, it becomes “What I give myself to” changing that word to be much like how we use “committed” or “commitment”

Don’t feel Challenged by your beliefs, they are yours!

What I like about this interpretation is that it is clear that it is personal. It’s about what I say I am willing to do and allows lots of room for others to want and do something different.

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