“It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809
Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom tell us in their book, "Why Truth Matters", that we should try to find out what the truth is, and not fudge it when we find it. We need to decide in advance that we will put truth first and all other considerations second. One reason we should do this, they say, is simply because we can. We can, so we ought to. No one brief generation, they tell us, has the right to tamper with the truth just for the sake of their own ephemeral satisfaction. Edmund Way Teale preceded the author's thinking by many decades when he wrote “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."
Of course the problem is that the truth has been tampered with. Not by “just one brief generation" but thousands of generations. My guess is that we humans have been tampering with the truth ever since our frontal cortex became fully developed some 200,000 years ago.
Of course the problem is that the truth has been tampered with. Not by “just one brief generation" but thousands of generations. My guess is that we humans have been tampering with the truth ever since our frontal cortex became fully developed some 200,000 years ago.
We can and we should decide in advance that we will put truth first and all other considerations second. Nothing less will do. George Savile 1633–1667 wrote: “Nothing has an uglier look to it than reason, when it is not on our side.” If we are willing and brave enough to decide in advance to put truth first, only to discover later that truth exposes our beliefs as being wrong, reason will no longer look ugly to us. Instead we will take joy that truth has prevailed. The secret lies in deciding in advance.
The evidence clearly shows that the majority of the planet's human population harbors a terrible confusion concerning "belief" and truth. If truth is so important and belief can be so treacherous, it is vital that we find a way to go about finding the truth.
But how do we find it?
The good news is we have already found it. It’s called evidence. We look for evidence; evidence supported not by belief but by facts. As the philosopher Jamie Whyte admonished, "We can't just believe anything we like!” We can't discover truth by just "believing" something is true. Just as importantly, the evidence we provide must be falsifiable. For a claim to be valid there must be some way to falsify it.
Let’s say, for example, that I made the claim that a hand appeared over my keyboard and typed every word you are reading. Is this a falsifiable claim? No. Why? Well, for one thing there are no witnesses. But, one might argue, what if there were witnesses to verify my claim? Sorry. My claim is still not falsifiable because the witnesses could be lying. Who truly believes that of the tens of millions of people who have raised their right hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help them God, not one has lied? Just as the claim that humans never die can be falsified by providing just one dead person, the assertion that my claim is true because I can provide witnesses can be denied by producing just one witness that has lied.
Now how about belief? There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that if I was inclined to, I could make a great number of people believe that a hand really did appear over my keyboard and tap out the words you are reading. Why do I believe I could do that? Just tune in on any Sunday morning and watch the slick TV preachers. Watch the enthralled believers sway and wave their arms above their heads as collection buckets are passed around by a small army of volunteers and the TV audience is cajoled into giving in return for special favors bestowed on them through the power of prayer.
Religion does not deal in evidence. Religion deals in belief. And this is where religion jumps the track. In order to keep religion on track, adherents must suspend reason, rationality and critical thinking, the very thing our brains were designed to accomplish.
Religion does not deal in evidence. Religion deals in belief. And this is where religion jumps the track. In order to keep religion on track, adherents must suspend reason, rationality and critical thinking, the very thing our brains were designed to accomplish.
Christian belief cannot be reconciled with Muslim belief. Why? Because Christians will point out there is no evidence that Mahomet actually talked to the angel Gabriel in a cave. Muslims will point out their belief that Jesus was not their savior. In fact they say, they are unable to find any evidence that he anything but just another prophet. Jews can't find any evidence for the truth of either of their religions. They have their own special beliefs concerning Jesus. All three of these religions deny the claim that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, was actually visited by an angel named "Moroni" who told him where to dig up the golden plates on which the Mormon religion is founded. Jews, Christians, Muslims and Mormons alike accuse all the other religions of not having evidence to back their claims, all the while ignoring the fact that they also are unable to provide any evidence for their own claims.
In spite of this we have powerful politicians, including one Republican presidential candidate holding a solemn "belief" that a con man that accumulated 33 wives really did talk to an angel named Moroni. (Rhymes with baloney)
The 911 terrorist believed they would immediately go to heaven and be rewarded with 72 virgins. In fact, their "belief" was so strong they willingly sacrificed their lives for it. Our brains, wonderful as they are, have only a limited space. When our head is full of false beliefs, it crowds out the space in our minds reserved for the truth. Eric Hoffer told us that "an empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head."
The one thing that all religions have in common is that they make claims without providing the tools to falsify them. Religion is stuck in reverse. Instead of gathering evidence before making a claim, it makes the claim first and then scurries around trying to find the evidence to support it. When religion cannot find evidence it resorts to faith. Faith is not a short-cut to, but rather a short-circuit of knowledge.
Religious ideas that are taught during childhood very often stick for life. According to research cited by the evangelical Christian group Youth for Christ for instance, 85% of Christians come to faith before the age of 23, with 15 the average age of conversion. The reason for this is simple. Minors are emotionally and intellectually vulnerable to the beliefs of adult religious figures. A baby of Muslim parents will be brought up to believe that Mahomet received his revelations in a cave from the angel Gabriel. And the baby will grow up believing it. A baby of Mormon parents will be brought up to believe Joseph Smith talked to the angel Moroni in his bedroom and the baby will grow up believing it. A baby of Catholic parents will be brought up to believe that the cracker and wine are actually the body and blood of a long dead religious zealot called Jesus, and they will grow up believing it. Protestants have their own set of weird "beliefs" ranging from a 6000 year old earth to true believers being whisked up into the sky when Armageddon arrives. These beliefs are drip, drip, dripped into innocent children's heads from the time they are very young, thus contaminating their minds and robbing them of the ability to think rationally and logically.
The one thing that all religions have in common is that they make claims without providing the tools to falsify them. Religion is stuck in reverse. Instead of gathering evidence before making a claim, it makes the claim first and then scurries around trying to find the evidence to support it. When religion cannot find evidence it resorts to faith. Faith is not a short-cut to, but rather a short-circuit of knowledge.
Religious ideas that are taught during childhood very often stick for life. According to research cited by the evangelical Christian group Youth for Christ for instance, 85% of Christians come to faith before the age of 23, with 15 the average age of conversion. The reason for this is simple. Minors are emotionally and intellectually vulnerable to the beliefs of adult religious figures. A baby of Muslim parents will be brought up to believe that Mahomet received his revelations in a cave from the angel Gabriel. And the baby will grow up believing it. A baby of Mormon parents will be brought up to believe Joseph Smith talked to the angel Moroni in his bedroom and the baby will grow up believing it. A baby of Catholic parents will be brought up to believe that the cracker and wine are actually the body and blood of a long dead religious zealot called Jesus, and they will grow up believing it. Protestants have their own set of weird "beliefs" ranging from a 6000 year old earth to true believers being whisked up into the sky when Armageddon arrives. These beliefs are drip, drip, dripped into innocent children's heads from the time they are very young, thus contaminating their minds and robbing them of the ability to think rationally and logically.
All these silly and contradictory beliefs were passed down from generation to generation. Here's the thing. If any of these babies had been accidentally switched to mothers of another religion at birth, they would all have grown up believing something far removed from what they now believe.
Think about that for a moment. If a Muslim baby were accidentally switched to a Baptist mother, it would grow up to be a Baptist. If a Catholic baby were accidentally switched to a Mormon mother, it would grow up to be a Mormon.
So the question must be asked. Does the circumstance of your birth have anything to do with what religion you believe? If it does, how can the belief you grew up with have anything to do with the truth, since other religions teach something entirely different to their children?
This is why I have written that polluting the minds of young people before their brains are capable of reason and critical thought is an egregious crime. This not only evades truth, it tricks a young mind into confusing belief with truth. Later, when their education and critical thinking skills improve and earlier "beliefs" that were drummed into them fail to stand up to logic and reason, they can and often do experience a lot of emotional pain. And not only for younger people. Older people too, when finally facing up to the fact that religion is one big hoax, experience a great deal of pain as it slowly seeps in that for years they have bought into the big bamboozle. When they leave their church they will likely be ostracised for choosing evidence over belief. In order to avoid the pain of separation they continue to profess to believe what they do not believe.
So the question must be asked. Does the circumstance of your birth have anything to do with what religion you believe? If it does, how can the belief you grew up with have anything to do with the truth, since other religions teach something entirely different to their children?
This is why I have written that polluting the minds of young people before their brains are capable of reason and critical thought is an egregious crime. This not only evades truth, it tricks a young mind into confusing belief with truth. Later, when their education and critical thinking skills improve and earlier "beliefs" that were drummed into them fail to stand up to logic and reason, they can and often do experience a lot of emotional pain. And not only for younger people. Older people too, when finally facing up to the fact that religion is one big hoax, experience a great deal of pain as it slowly seeps in that for years they have bought into the big bamboozle. When they leave their church they will likely be ostracised for choosing evidence over belief. In order to avoid the pain of separation they continue to profess to believe what they do not believe.
As noted at the beginning, Tom Paine claimed it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. That may not be true for everyone. But it is for me. We all have our own ideas about what constitutes sin. I happen to believe (as did Thomas Paine) that one of the greatest sins I can commit is to profess to believe something I cannot bring myself to believe. Pretending to believe what I do not believe would seriously impugn my character.
That is why, for me at least, I will always choose evidence over belief. I have decided in advance to put truth first.
No comments:
Post a Comment