“If you think, ‘I know well,’ little truth you know.” – Kena Upanishad
There is this idea that truth requires religion – perhaps an American idea, but a widespread one nonetheless. I do not believe one needs religion to find truth. If anything, the idea that religion is a prerequisite for truth is a frightening one, and not one I subscribe to. But if one’s religious values are in line with values of truth, common decency, and our collective humanity, I personally do not mind what avenue a person takes to find truth.
Beyond religion, there is science. When I encourage doing your own research, I do not mean disregarding the data and evidence painstakingly produced by experts in their fields.
And herein is a paradox: to do proper research and form an informed opinion, one must be able to differentiate truth and lies. But to differentiate truth and lies, one must conduct research. Critical thinking and analysis are absolutely critical to a functioning society, and even on the individual level may mean the difference between life and death.
Take the miracle of vaccines, for example. Vaccines are one of the premier achievements of the human species. They are safe, effective, and have saved billions of lives. All it took to shatter this trust were a few bad-faith actors, and as a direct result, children are suffering from and dying of completely preventable diseases.
Less fatal but equally frustrating are those who discount the truly overwhelming evidence for evolution and natural selection in favor of words written by dead men thousands of years ago. The priests of old did not write with the objective of truth in mind. They wrote to codify their religion. Students of science, on the other hand, dedicate their lives to rigorous research and experimentation from which they derive truth. Even on its long timescales, we have observed evolution in organisms which reproduce quickly.
Not to rehash the theme of the previous post, but when the facts of a matter are laid out so bare, it can be exceedingly frustrating when onlookers still refuse to acknowledge the truth. Of course, not every one of these instances is because said onlooker is restrained by their religion, but in this country, that is often the case. I will not pretend that I have not fallen victim to this myself in the past.
I have not lost faith in logic and plain facts, but it is important to acknowledge that emotion often plays an outsized role in making crucial decisions – even in those who claim to be unbiased and purely logical. Perhaps keeping faith in logic is foolish, but if the truth is compromised, what will we have left?
