Belief, faith and doubt

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

Belief is the wound that knowledge heals.

– Ursula Le Guin

We do love bragging about the great strides we’ve made to become civilized. Yet, despite all the astounding technological progress, our attempts at consistently manifesting morality, humanity and living peacefully remain largely ineffective. We are truly still very primitive in that regard.

It seems we just can’t get on with one another. Racial, tribal, religious, and cultural divisions seem insurmountable. In fact, we absolutely refuse to live in harmony, even though the future of our species depends on it.

In the past, it was common to be taught to have faith in a variety of deities, and to extend that same faith to those in positions of authority, whether they were religious, political, or cultural leaders. It was believed that faith had the power to solve any problem, no matter how complex or challenging it may seem. While this approach may have inexplicably worked for some, it’s important to remember that blind faith can also lead to negative consequences if we don’t take the time to think critically and question the things we are told to believe. Science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke famously proposed that:

A faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

Those in positions of authority who we regrettably placed our faith in, have repeatedly failed to honor that trust. It is actually chilling to observe that the overwhelming majority of them actively seek to abuse that trust. It’s become quite common for anyone who lets their guard down, even for the briefest time, to be duped in some way. We are our own worst enemy as it seems we have a desperate need to believe. Bertrand Russell, the celebrated philosopher was cannily aware of this disposition when he wrote:

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones

Despite what most religious leaders tell you, faith is not a virtue. It is the abrogation of responsibility. Faith provides the springboard for leaping into a whole heap of unwanted trouble. Faith is baggage best left behind. We need to learn to doubt more, and employ skepticism in our daily approach to life. Skepticism also requires the individual to think critically. Ambrose Bierce, poet, journalist and icon of American literature was scathing in his definition of faith and those who demand it:

FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

We are constantly told that we live in the information age. However, it’s disconcerting that far too many people fall prey to the disinformation and misinformation inherent, that dominates print, auditory and visual media. Even more appalling is that one of the main perpetrators of this disinformation and misinformation campaign are your very own governments. And they’re not just satisfied with misleading or creating false narratives. In order to further their self-serving agendas, they will resort to disseminating outright lies when necessary, which needless to say, is quite frequent.

As I write this, students from a truly incredible number of tertiary educational institutions across the USA and Europe are engaged in protest action. The issue that finally tipped the scales this time has to do with Western government support and complicity in what many have concluded is an unfolding genocide in the Middle East. The younger generation have finally lost faith in their authority figures. They have stopped believing the false narratives and outright lies being spread by their governments and cultural and religious leaders.

I have no doubt these governments which are without doubt corrupt, are terrified, otherwise they would not be suppressing the protest action with some of the most brutal police intervention I have witnessed in a while. They have not stopped there, however. These shameless abusers of power, have tried to smear the protesters as antisemitic, albeit futilely. The weaponizing of antisemitism by the authorities (and mainstream media) is yet another sign of the disgraceful, dystopian times we live in, where moral disengagement appears to be a virtue.

It is imperative that we question how civilized we really are. It should not be taken for granted, and we absolutely cannot trust the authorities who say we are. They need you to believe that you’re doing just fine, while they quietly subvert the tenets of morality and human development. American social critic, satirist and scholar of English, H. L. Mencken, famously observed that:

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

Are you ready to doubt more?