Gumby Land thinking
is simply the idea when a person creates a
belief and many others believe in the same belief. This
term comes from the popular animation made from clay, called
Claymation "Gumby"
which was a television show based on a little Claymation
character named Gumby. The creator of Gumby, Art
Clokey, apparently went to India for a short vacation while going
through a difficult time period in his life, and brought along Gumby with
him on his journey. He claimed that there was a change in his life after
meeting a famous guru named Sathya Sai Baba. The guru
sprinkled holy ashes on Gumby, and claimed that Gumby was an incarnation
of spiritual love. The little character essentially had become a
spiritual icon. Clockey then claimed that things started workout out for
him after the encounter with the guru. Gumby became famous and popular
once again, even helping Clockey sign an eight million dollar contract for the
show. Back in India, where his experience first happened, a small shrine
was put in place to the little character Gumby to worship it.
Here are some illustrations for Gumby Land thinking. When
someone, without any clear evidence or basis, claims to have revived from the
dead and people worshipped that person would be one form of Gumby Land
thinking. Another would be when a house dog is somehow worshipped as the leader
of this world because of this one claim from an unknown “prophet” that told
everyone that dog will soon take over the world. Lastly, if a teacher were to
say that the world is going to end in 10 days without any calculations or a
foundational basis for that claim, and somehow many people believed it to be
true. These are some examples of Gumby Land thinking.
We now realize that Gumby land thinking is meant to
show how some people will believe anything. Personally for me, I thought
that the very fact a shrine was put up for a little clay
character that was human made was outrageous and insane. Some may
argue that we cannot prove that Gumby is not the
incarnation of spiritual love because it is not a scientifically testable
concept. It was hard to think that some people actually believed what one
person had said were the truth. This is where Gumby Land thinking’s idea
shines. The concept that a person or group of people can just
randomly bring up an idea and others will
actually believe it because it sounds “good”, without being
logical and giving any thought to the why and the origin of
that idea, nor having any scientific proof to back up the idea. Gumby
Land thinking sheds its lights in other religions as well. Because of the
very reason that some idea cannot be proven, in this case that Gumby is an
incarnation of spiritual love, scientists feel that then it doesn't
exist. Because a person can come up with all sorts
of outrageous ideas without a scientific foundation for its
beliefs, it most definitely cannot be taken seriously.
Although I say when something cannot be scientifically
proven, it is not true; we cannot generalize all religious beliefs as the
same. There are clear differences between religion and Gumby Land
thinking. Most definitely there are many religious ideas out
there that can be clearly defined as made up and
unreliable. However some religions and their ideas have much
historical basis and unexplainable phenomena that even science cannot
prove. The one main difference between religion and Gumby Land thinking is
that religion has many phenomena and history that back up their beliefs, while
Gumby Land thinking certainly do not have anything to “prove” its existence
through anything. If a certain experience occurs that cannot be
scientifically explained, it would not be right for scientists to say that
it never happened because it cannot be proven or even tested. There are
many phenomena and ideas out in the world that science certainly cannot
explain… yet. Because of our understanding right now of the world,
we may say that many things have become thousand times easier to explain and
actually relate. We cannot simply categorize some idea into “Gumby Land
thinking” and say it is false just because it is just comical and outrageous,
but consider it and actually take time to research and try to somehow prove its
validity.
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