Our attribution of these beliefs makes a key difference. Some of us believe that our personal beliefs
are individual variations on flexible, dynamic themes developed by thousands of generations of
humans, in an evolutionary process in which compromise and change are key elements. Some of us
believe that our beliefs are absolute truths, revealed to somebody, somewhere by a supreme being.
I hope you see a difference there.
Actually I don't. You stopped one step short of going back far enough.
You BELIEVE that your personal beliefs are based on evolutionary themes. That makes you feel superior to the person whose personal beliefs are based on faith in an unseeable unknowable being.
But that's just a belief. Not provable, just a plain "this I believe because this I believe." No more, no less.
Just the way the religious person, at bottom, has to say "this I believe becausse this I believe."
You are both, when you go back far enough to first principles of your thinking, starting with the same statement. "There is something I believe simply and purely because I believe it. I can't prove it, I can't know it, I can't show its truth scientifically, I can't produce any experiment that will prove it's true. I believe it's true purely and simply because that's what I believe."
It's exactly the same thing you each say.
But they're really the same thing. You come back down to "this I believe, just because I believe it and for no other reason." |
