FUNDAMENTALLY DANGEROUS

Believing in stuff is bloody dangerous. If history teaches us anything, it teaches us to steer well clear of people who operate from belief. Crusaders, suicide bombers, Nazis and born-again Oil-Barons (Republican American Presidents et al), any kind of ‘fundamentalist’, all have one thing in common; their willingness to kill and maim to glorify that in which they believe.

That is not to say that spirit, ethics and a sense of right and wrong have no place in the right thinking of an intelligent person. Of course they do. But belief requires the abandonment of that which makes us Homo-Sapiens: the intellect. All belief requires the acceptance of that which true intellect can’t stomach – the paradox. All belief systems, at some point, need you to chuck your intellect into the bin and accept the improbable, if not the impossible. And that’s a very dangerous thing to do.

Darwin had a bit of a problem when he hypothesised that we are the outcome of a chaotic and accidental process he called evolution, meaning that we could no longer claim to be made a few thousand years ago in God’s image. That pissed off a lot of believers and some dumb people still want to teach ‘Creation’. So God put the Dinosaur bones in the ground just to have a laugh? Galileo ran into a bit of bother when he announced that the Earth (and therefore Mankind) wasn’t the centre of the universe. While all major religions propound that humility is a virtue, it is the rejection of the believers’ anthropocentric (human-centred) vision of the Universe that is the true humility.

That we are physically made of stuff manufactured in the core of stars is not miraculous enough for a believer. For him, his own cosmic importance is what really matters, regardless of what his intellect might be telling him.

What distinguishes us from the rest of animal creation has been a fascinating subject for debate for millennia. Is it the possession of a soul? Anyone who has had the pleasure of sharing their life with an animal companion might have difficulty with that one. Some of the finest souls I’ve met were canines. How about using tools? We’ve found apes, birds and other creatures that use tools, no distinction there then.

What does the title ‘Homo Sapiens’ mean? It means ‘thinking man’. THINKING. Apart from our ability to destroy our environment on a truly awesome scale, what makes us what we are, is our ability to think; to use our intellect. A believer may well say that our intellect is ‘God-given’. Well, if God gave you an intellect, why, in heaven’s name, would it be the first thing to get chucked out of the pram when things get a bit difficult to fathom?

The sad fact is you can’t have an intelligent debate with anyone who operates from a basis of pure belief. For a believer, all difficult problems become a point of faith and there can be no rational discussion of a point of view when that is based on the abandonment of the rational. Don’t bother arguing with a fundamentalist – it’ll probably get you shot. There is no argument to be had – he’s right, he believes he’s right and there’s nothing you can do about it. Except, of course, shoot the stupid bastard before he shoots you.