We come into this world completely ignorant and helpless. As we grow we learn about the world around us through experience. We learn how to eat, how to sleep and other vital skills. As we become aware of disparities of knowledge or ability between us and those around us, we ask questions and endeavor to learn these new things.
Eventually we come to questions that those older and more experienced around us can't answer or can't explain the answer. A few thousand years ago someone may have asked why the seasons happen. An answer may have been proffered: because it is the will of the gods. Of course it is the gods that periodically bless and curse according to their arbitrary wills.
The first answers are offered to the person that cannot be verified by logic or experience. What's the missing piece? Well faith of course.
Faith has been and probably will continue to be a grossly misrepresented idea. In the previous example the person should have faith that the gods control the seasons arbitrarily according to their wills precisely because there is no evidence; because there is no real reason to believe it. This is not faith. This is the cowardice of a feeble mind.
It is a common trend that beliefs and prejudices pass from parents to children. Or that they become common in a particular geographical region or cultural tradition. Beliefs and prejudices are particularly useful because they significantly reduce the amount of rational deliberation the mind must undertake on a daily basis with everyday situations. But therein also lies the problem. Because it is possible to reduce the mental stress of thinking about moral and ethical issues daily, the person decides not to think at all. The beliefs and prejudices are regarded as absolute truth and anybody's insinuation that they are not absolute and should be questioned is offensive. And "it's just my opinion" becomes the only 'logical' defense.
Opinions are not all equally valid. An opinion held by a majority does not make it true. Where differing opinions occur it should be naturally incumbent on those involved to uncover the underlying principles of the opinions/beliefs. If the conclusions of rational arguments are different then the premises must be examined. My premises will always be the consistency of truth and my desire to be happy.
The beliefs of parents or cultures do not excuse my beliefs. My beliefs are my own and if anyone else shares them I would hope it can only be because we came about obtaining them the same way. I welcome the questioning of my beliefs. If I cannot defend something I believe with a rational argument then I must either modify the belief to something I can rationally defend or eliminate it and search for something else. I would like to become aware of a false belief as soon as possible. A first set of beliefs are chosen then modified throughout life to become better and better approximations of truth. The alternative is choosing an arbitrary set of beliefs and dedicating my life to justifying them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment