Solipsism

Solipsism is a concept that I first came across during my AS Philosophy course. Basically, to be solipsistic means to feel that you are the only one that actually exists, and that all objects and people external to you are fiction; they do not exist.

Obviously, this is not something that Christians advocate. On the contrary, as Christians our fundamental belief is that we are not alone, that there is an eternal and omnipotent One who exists now, existed before the world began, and will continue to exist forever, regardless of us. Furthermore, if the individual were the only one who existed, then we would not need to follow the command to "love others as ourselves", because there would be no others to love as ourselves.

Why, then, do I mention solipsism?

Well, I do not mean to say that we should act as though we are the only ones that exist in every area of our lives. Indeed, in my Philosophy course, solipsism was always used as a counter-argument to certain philosophical positions; that solipsism was a potential problem of those positions. However, I think that there is a use for solipsism - in a very diluted form - which can aid us in our Christian life.

My church has a Sunday school, and this means that the children go off during the service to other, more age-appropriate things instead of having to stay in church listening to a sermon which will be far too long and far too uninteresting for a three-year-old. However, the children do not go straight to Sunday school, and so the very start of the service - before the children go off - is usually more child-friendly than the rest of it. In some cases, this means singing more songs which are aimed at children, whose lyrics are simpler and whose music is more bouncy and energetic; songs which sometimes have actions.

I find myself rather embarrassed when we sing these songs in church. I find myself starting to think that I shouldn't be singing a song like this; after all, this song was written for under-10s to sing, and I am not under 10. So I find myself barely singing them at all, instead almost mouthing the words while looking around with an expression on my face as if to say 'Help, get me out of here! This song is too infantile for my teenage mind!'.

Yet a few weeks ago, I realised that I didn't need to feel embarrassed. Regardless of what age group a song is written for, it is still a worship song; still a song designed to glorify and lift up the Name of God. And why should I be embarrassed to do that? It occurred to me that instead of thinking that this song is not for me simply because it was written for children, I should be singing along as enthusiastically as I do any other song; maybe, I should even be joining in with the actions. Because it's still achieving the same aim: I am still worshipping my God and Saviour.

I feel embarrassed because singing songs such as these is not how society deems it appropriate for older people to behave. If you have ever read the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, you will know that once you reach a certain age you are called upon to shed the 'immature' skin of childhood and replace it with the 'mature' skin that has been growing underneath since birth. Yet if this stops us from enjoying certain forms of worship simply because it is too 'childish' and 'infantile' for someone of our age to be doing, then maybe we should stop worrying about what society has deemed appropriate for us and start focusing on the One person that matters in that situation, the One we are worshipping: God.

Maybe, just maybe, we can all be a bit more solipsistic when it comes to matters such as these, and not worry about what others might think; shirk off the presence of other people and just focus on ourselves and God, the One whom we praise, so that we can worship in socially 'inappropriate' and 'childish' ways, without embarrassment.