XYZ | By Stephen Wells – September 23, 2022
The “enlightenment”. That mythical period of history where humanity broke the shackles of superstition and ascended into an era of science, technology and exploration of the natural world. No longer would the leaders of the world be making decisions based on religion and a bearded wispy giant in the sky. Instead rational thought based only on what could be demonstrated via direct observation and experiment would underpin the decisions made.
It’s just that people themselves are fundamentally irrational.
Each of us are burdened and enriched with emotions and feelings. Stray thoughts are constantly appearing in our minds. Our world views are shaped by environment, genetics, the company we keep and the physical location we live in. In short, our rational modern world is a lie.
At the fundamental heart of every man is an irrationality. A presupposition about why we exist and what our purpose is for this brief period of life and about what, if anything, happens once that period is over. From that starting presupposition (that is by its very nature, irrational), we attempt to rationalise everything else we experience to fit into our fundamental beliefs.
For millennia the presupposition for Europeans was the Bible. Under this worldview we have a creator who spoke the universe into existence. We were made in the image of the creator but we fell into sin. To save us from sin our creator manifested Himself as a man and sacrificed Himself for us and took the punishment that we all deserved upon Himself before rising from the dead and then ascending to heaven. By simply believing the above and living as if it’s completely true our creator’s Holy Spirit will begin to transform us out of a life of sin into a life without sin and will guarantee us an eternity in heaven after we die.
This worldview is completely irrational.
The problem is, is that the alternatives are too.
Let’s take a look at the atheist view:
In the beginning there was also nothing. Then out of nothing, everything exploded into existence for no reason whatsoever. Everything had rules governing how everything interacted with everything else, including the rule of increasing entropy (increasing disorder). Despite entropy, order gradually increased over a period of 13 Billion years through random chance until a single cell form of life evolved. That cell is more complex than the entire computer system network of the internet, but answers as to the “missing” link to explain the start of life will be discovered in time with more research. From this single cell, all life evolved, becoming more and more complex until a Billion years later humans came to be. There is no purpose to your life other than the purpose you choose to give it. You are nothing more than the product of random chance and your consciousness is simply electrons moving about between atoms that just happen to be in the right place at the right time to cause the effect you call your life. When your atoms are no longer in the right configuration you will be considered dead and what you call your consciousness will cease to be.
This is also completely irrational.
Nor does it matter what your own personal assertion is about life, the universe and everything. At some point in your narrative rationality breaks down and there will be the absurd, the crazy, the irrationality of your world view.
The real question is, did you choose your irrationality or was it chosen for you?
I would suggest to you that if you have always believed your world view was rational then the latter is the case. I recommend to you that you accept that your worldview is irrational and stop trying to pretend that it isn’t. Then you will be in a better position to choose fundamental beliefs that best serve yourself and humanity as a whole.
But which irrationality to choose? Empiricism, Relativism, Materialism, Spiritualism, Atheism? Islam, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Dream time, Scientology, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Jedi, Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Our observations have given most of us the experience that the same set of rules govern how reality functions and that those rules appear inviolable. In other words there can only be one truth. There is THE truth, or there is falsehood.
Yet because any fundamental Truth is irrational from our perspective then we must do the best we can to decide what THE truth is. Is it Mohammed, Christ or Dawkins? We must use our observation and reason to make a choice about which assertions (that are unfalsifiable by their very nature) to hold as absolutely true.
