To tell you the truth......

I think one reason we have such difficulty in debunking all the dogma we have been exposed to in the world is that our most important thoughts often contradict our emotions. As Mark Twain said, “We do no end of feeling and mistake it for thinking.” Once that little voice in our head convinces us we have found the truth, why waste anymore time on it? That is why dogma is so dangerous. Dogma is not the absence of thought; it is the end of thought. Skepticism, on the other hand allows us to separate ideas which are just plain ridiculous from those which have some merit. When mankind began to act on belief un-enhanced by proof and reason, in other words delusional thinking, our wisdom became disconnected and critical thinking skills were lost. As a result untold millions have died and are still dying every day because of this flawed system; a system which adopts the most outrageous and bizarre ideas without demanding one grain of proof. I will examine a few of these weird and wacky belief systems later.

“We are all ignorant”, Will Rogers said, “only about different things.” And he was exactly right. But ignorance is one thing and stupidity is another. Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance. And when I see adults, deliberately cultivating ignorance in the heads of young children who have not developed enough to have critical thinking skills I know how much harm it can do. Eric Hoffer said, “An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.”

Edmund Way Teale who wrote, “Circle of Seasons” said this, “It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have it”.

Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom tackle the issue of truth head on in their book"Why Truth Matters." They write (p.16) "If we've never bothered to decide that truth matters, and that it shouldn't be subject to our wishes...that, in short, wishful thinking is bad thinking, then we are likely to be far less aware of the tension. We simply allow ourselves, without much worry or reflection, to assume that the way humans want the world to be is the way it is...and endemic confusion and mudddle is the result. If one decides that truth doesn't matter in one area what is to prevent one from deciding it doesn't matter at all?"

What indeed?

This is why I get upset when I see fundamentalist teaching their children the most outlandish lies. Lies about creationism for example.

When we die, that’s the end of it. This is the thing most religious people can’t bear to face. They think there is something special about us. There is not. We are primates who just happened to evolve with large brains. If you dropped any human buck naked on almost any spot on the earth and they didn’t land in a Motel 6, they could not survive. Even with their oversized brains. What's so special about that?

One of the most pathetic situations I have witnessed is watching old people near death cling desperately to life. One doctor I know told me (in disgust) about a 94 year old man whose family wanted the hospital to take every measure to save his life at any cost. They were bible believing Christians. One would think that if they really believed,they would want to let him go and slip into eternal bliss, rather than lie there in a hospital bed suffering and using up medical resources that could well have been used on others.

Mark Twain said "A lie can travel half way round the world while the truth is tying its shoes." More on truth and lies later.