Believers and Knowers, Part 2

 Back in July, I posted a piece entitled Believers and Knowers and contrasted those folks who assume truth on the basis of belief and those folks who seek evidence and data to confirm the truth.  That conflict rages on.  In fact, now that Biden is President and Democrats control both houses of Congress the gap between evidence-based truth and belief-based truth is even wider.  That scares the bejeezus out of me.  In recent conversations with believers, I have been called stupid, naïve, ignorant, etc., when I posted facts and evidence in contrast to their beliefs.  There has been much said about the fact that certain media outlets are stoking the fires of belief by providing misinformation regarding the truth,  Believers just suck it in as truth.  There has been much written about the fact that many Trump supporters exhibit characteristics consistent with cult membership.  All of that is scary.  But I have been particularly concerned about the willingness of some people to accept lies as truth, to assume that because they believe something it must be true, and to avoid science, evidence, data, etc., as though it was the plague (I would have said pandemic but this same group tends not to take that as truth either.)  I have remained dumbfounded by these folks and they have continued to label me as dumb but not founded. 

In December I posted a piece entitled False Beliefs wherein I enumerated those beliefs held by the believers that had no foundation in fact, evidence, science, or data.  I was more frustrated than ever after that mental exercise.

But I have recently had an epiphany regarding the answer to the dilemma of how adult human beings in America can continue to cling so steadfastly to those falsehoods.  I know part of it is the promotion of false information by the likes of Fox, QAnon, News Max, OAN, etc.  I know part of it is likely the appeal to the fear some have of immigrants or people in need of government assistance or the risk of losing their firearms.  I know part of it is bigotry against people of color, poor people in general, globalization, and educated people.  And I know that part of it is an anger toward anyone who might change the status quo of white male dominance in the US.  But that surely cannot account for all of the commitment to non-evidence-based beliefs.

And it occurred to me that we have been training Americans for years to believe in things not supported by reality, not supported by science or data or evidence.  We teach false beliefs to children and they hold on to those beliefs into adulthood.

Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Superman, Super Girl, Batman, Buffy, even the Boogeyman are all fictitious, but many parents have so instilled belief in these mythical figures that it is a small step for humankind to enter adulthood prepared to believe in the absurd. 

Religion makes it worse.  There are somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 gods worshipped on planet earth today.  Each set of believers believes their god or gods is the one true god or gods.  No set of believers has any evidence of the existence of a god.  Those believers have taken the word of their parents, of some so-called holy people, and of some so-called sacred text as the basis of their belief.  There is no evidence. 

There are, however, deep personal beliefs and feelings wrapped around religious beliefs.  Such feelings are rooted in explanations of and hoped for relief from current events and the hope of some reward after death.  But there is no evidence that humans have an afterlife any more than there is evidence humans have a pre-birth life.  Many follow religious guidelines for fear that their god is a cop with a radar gun who watches all the time and will keep score of their bad deeds and high speeds.  Many are riddled with guilt as perfection is unachievable.  Many pay huge sums of money to a variety of churches and so-called holy people.  From the outside looking in it is amazingly bizarre.

There is no evidence that there is any kind of supreme, all-knowing being responsible to and for all life.  There is no evidence of an afterlife.  There is no evidence of a place that houses the souls of the departed whether it is heaven or hell.  For Christians, it is even more difficult to hold on to these Santa Claus notions as there is no evidence Jesus ever existed, the so-called holy scriptures were not canonized until 400 years after Jesus supposedly lived, there are no original copies of these scriptures, and the only remnants we have were totally edited by succeeding generations of scribes so that each scribe added his own interpretation to the scripture.  So these adults walk around believing a child was somehow born to a virgin even though they know that is impossible.  They believe some deity created heaven and earth in 6 days and that the planet is only 10,000 years old.  They believe that a man died and 3 days later rose from the dead, after he had walked on water, turned water into wine, healed the sick and proposed that everyone treat everyone as their brother.  For the most extreme members of this faith, the fundamentalists and evangelicals, the Bible is inerrant, every word is true and holy, even though they know their god did not dictate this book.  It was written by Bronze Age illiterate people and is still adhered to today.  There is nothing more amusing than to hear a Christian recite their beliefs.  Such recitations make the Night Before Christmas and Superman comics sound like minor league falsehoods.

We know, not believe, that planet earth is 12.5 billion years old.  We know evolution explains the changes and advancements in life forms on the planet.  We know the earth is spherical, not flat.  We know the earth orbits the sun and not vice versa.  We know there was no way for the over 1,000,000 life forms on the planet to ever fit in a boat and there is no evidence of a world-wide flood.  We know there was no Roman census the year Jesus was supposedly born.  We know Herod, the bad guy in the birth story, had been dead for 6 years before that supposed birth.  We know there are no prohibitions in the Bible against slavery though there are some pretty clear messages about all humans being equal and subject to love, support, and help if needed, most of which conservative Christians tend not to support anyway.  But if you are religious and believe these things it is a very small step to believe that Trump won and someone stole the election.  If Trump is the good guy one has to believe that Democrats are the bad guys. What you already believe is so improbable that these beliefs are clearly in reach. 

You have in effect been setting out cookies for Trump and on November 6^th he delivered your gift:  a claim that he had won.  It was a lie then, it is a lie now, but it is deeply believed.  Trump clearly abandoned our Constitution to re-seat himself as President.  And these folks believe that to be true with all their hearts and minds and souls failing to notice that the heart has another function and no one has ever produced any evidence of the existence of a soul.  It’s worse because their minds have stopped working.

I have had contact with recent converts to Christianity.  They are Zealots.  They are inspired and excited and they are not open to reason now that they have a skydaddy and a host of other people who also have imaginary friends.  It is not worth the effort to point out the folly of their belief.  We tend to see them as harmless, but perhaps dull.

But when I have contact with the political fervor stirred by religious believers I become amazed beyond belief.  That is because I have facts.  I have evidence.  I have the truth.  I have knowledge.  There is a tumultuous interaction between those who support Trump with religious zeal and those who know better.  I almost find it funny that the least religious president we have ever had has sparked a belief in himself that borders on religious fanaticism and I await the day those who support him see the light, not the conspiracy theories and not the lies, not the self-serving media blitz arguing falsely that he did great things.  No.  I am eager for them to see the light of truth, knowledge, justice and the American Way.  It will be difficult for the few brave enough to say let me see the facts.  For those who have brittle belief systems not subject to logic or reason who will go to their graves believing they were right, Trump really won, there is a heaven and they are the right hand of God.  Those folks will never learn.  When they die, there is no one there, no mansions, no heaven, no hell.  The lights just go out.  And all the damage they have done to their fellow humans will live on after them.

Throwing truth at believers is like administering medicine to dead people. (Apologies to Thomas Paine.)