05.26.08
The Rational
Various authors differ as to when the Rational stage tends to arise. Apparently in some cases it arises late in adolescence but often can be delayed until mid-adulthood or even permanently.
The Rational Stage is more or less equivalent to Peck’s Stage III which he named the Skeptic, Individual Stage. He called them Skeptic because they demand scientific and logical explanations if they are to believe anything. As scientific answers about God seem to be slow in coming to us, many of them – but not all - have chosen not to believe. Even though they may not believe in the God of any particular church, it is important to note that their approach to what they believe is actually more evolved for the most part than that of the Faithful.
Peck called this stage “Individual” because this person tends to be self-regulating. They have internalized the principles and disciplines that hold their life together. Therefore they are not dependent upon an institution to give order to their life and not dependent upon an externally imposed set of rules to keep their behavior in check. Additionally this person can be called individual because they rely on their own selves as a point of reference for their beliefs and behaviors. They have no need of the consensus of a group to determine their own opinions or beliefs.
In contrast to the Faithful, the Rational cares little about group membership and will leave the group behind if it includes expectations that compromise his view of truth. His overriding trait is truth. While there is no guarantee that the Rational will show integrity in every area of endeavor, there is a sort of absolute integrity about truth. Unlike the Faithful, the Rational will stick his neck out for the sake of what he sees as being true.
Unlike the Faithful who needs clear cut rules that come from an external authority, the Rational is self-governing. He does not particularly need rules to keep him going and the locus of authority for him is….himself. Does this sound like the Lawless person? It does, but there is a difference. It is a difference that escapes the notice of so many of the Fundamentalist and evangelical preachers. Unlike the Lawless individual, the Rational governs himself well where the lawless governs himself poorly. The Rational person does have an internal source of authority where the Lawless individual does not.
The Rational person is likely to question or reject this stance held by many of the Faithful that only their own religion can be true. The Rational can see that from among the billions of people who have ever existed over many, many years, in all parts of the world, there is little likelihood that whatever God is up there would be so limited as to select out one particular religion of people in one part of the world, going to one church as the ONLY chosen people? The Rational can see that the likelihood of him being born into or running across that one true religion is overwhelmingly low. There has to be another answer and whatever it is, it is not that this poor, limited anthropomorphic god is going to choose just his group for the favor of salvation, no matter what the preacher says. He can see that whether there is a god up there or not, this type of prejudice on the part of a god who is supposed to be all good, is just not a possibility.
Whether he believes in an anthropomorphic God or not, the Rational person will put more store in the powers of science and reason to find meaning in his life. In this sense, the Rational person’s “god” is not really a judgmental creator in the sky but rather rational processes, reason, science, and individuality.
The rational’s approach to sacred texts is that they probably teach history and have good stories that help a person understand how to live but are not to be taken literally.