The Darkening Mind?
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” – Thomas Paine
Our nation is awash in outrage. In this country, liberals and conservatives have been shouting at each for at least a quarter century. Secularists and fundamentalist Christians have been at it nearly as long. Whether the topic is abortion, gay marriage, fiscal policy, immigration, gun control, or family values, we have become adept at casting blame and polarizing arguments. We are as sure that “we” are right as we are sure that “they” are wrong.
The world has its share of outrage as well. The “clash of civilizations” seems increasingly likely as extremist Muslims, Christians, and Jews push both rapturous visions and apocalyptic nightmares that will attend the success or failure of man’s work on earth and God’s justified response. Too many engage in fervent prayers that seem to provoke equally fervent prayers from others for just the opposite results.
As wildly different as we contentious humans seem, however, our outward anger, frustration, and religious justifications may mask an underlying and disturbing similarity. Are we afraid of the future? Have we lost confidence in our ability to shape our own destiny? Does our anger mask an inner hopelessness?
In America, whether it is big government, the global economy, intractable social problems, terrorism, bird flu, global warming, or a host of other worries, many of us seem to accept that there is little we can do – or at least not much prospect of success even as we try. We seem ready to accept as well that those in charge are either out of or have the wrong ideas. So we blame “them,” retire within ourselves (or our gated communities or enclaves of faith), tell pollsters that the country is headed in the wrong direction, or seek a “savior” in the form of a pundit, politician, or priest.
Fear of the future is not new. A collective lack of confidence in our ability to affect it may be. Thomas Paine and the Founding Fathers would be surprised and take issue with this American hopelessness and helplessness. The Founders were, after all, children of the Enlightenment. They had emerged from what they considered the Dark Ages of superstition. They had become men of science, trusting in progress guided by human reason. They would have rejected the thought that our problems could be beyond our understanding or ability just as readily as some of us seem to accept that thought today.
Why have so many lost faith in reason? Unfortunately, there can be great comfort in being a victim of an out-of-control world. If we are helpless, we don’t have to help. If reason cannot solve our problems, we don’t have to think. We can be free to engage in complaint, conflict and of course conspicuous consumption.
This is a prescription for an escalating nightmare. It is a nightmare that will not end through following the path of religion alone. Rejecting reason for divine revelation is as dangerous as rejecting faith on the assumption that science will solve all our ills. Finding our way in a complex and confusing world will require both reason and faith. Rejecting either – or placing sole reliance on either – leads to unbalanced lives as well as unbalanced nations.
We need to restore balance to our heads and our hearts. We need to acknowledge that careful science and caring religion have both enhanced our lives, just as we acknowledge that irresponsible science and intolerant religion have damaged them. While science did not create global warming or family disintegration, scientists who acted like their sole responsibility was to their hypotheses and not the hypothetical implications of their creations have surely contributed to many of our current problems. While religion did not create violence or poverty, people of faith who acted like their sole responsibility was to the holy book and not to eradicating poverty with holy practice surely contributed to the social disparities that breed the ill-clothed and ill-fed who see violence as essential if not justified.
We need to restore faith in our reason even as we restore reason in our faith. If the Founding Fathers sought to enshrine reason in the guidance of our lives, they also accepted that faith would give us the moral framework to guide the exercise of that reason. Either without the other leads to inner and ultimately outer terror.
“We are really another people,” Thomas Paine said in the same letter to the Abbe Raynal in 1782, “and cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice.” Let us hope he was correct.
Our nation is awash in outrage. In this country, liberals and conservatives have been shouting at each for at least a quarter century. Secularists and fundamentalist Christians have been at it nearly as long. Whether the topic is abortion, gay marriage, fiscal policy, immigration, gun control, or family values, we have become adept at casting blame and polarizing arguments. We are as sure that “we” are right as we are sure that “they” are wrong.
The world has its share of outrage as well. The “clash of civilizations” seems increasingly likely as extremist Muslims, Christians, and Jews push both rapturous visions and apocalyptic nightmares that will attend the success or failure of man’s work on earth and God’s justified response. Too many engage in fervent prayers that seem to provoke equally fervent prayers from others for just the opposite results.
As wildly different as we contentious humans seem, however, our outward anger, frustration, and religious justifications may mask an underlying and disturbing similarity. Are we afraid of the future? Have we lost confidence in our ability to shape our own destiny? Does our anger mask an inner hopelessness?
In America, whether it is big government, the global economy, intractable social problems, terrorism, bird flu, global warming, or a host of other worries, many of us seem to accept that there is little we can do – or at least not much prospect of success even as we try. We seem ready to accept as well that those in charge are either out of or have the wrong ideas. So we blame “them,” retire within ourselves (or our gated communities or enclaves of faith), tell pollsters that the country is headed in the wrong direction, or seek a “savior” in the form of a pundit, politician, or priest.
Fear of the future is not new. A collective lack of confidence in our ability to affect it may be. Thomas Paine and the Founding Fathers would be surprised and take issue with this American hopelessness and helplessness. The Founders were, after all, children of the Enlightenment. They had emerged from what they considered the Dark Ages of superstition. They had become men of science, trusting in progress guided by human reason. They would have rejected the thought that our problems could be beyond our understanding or ability just as readily as some of us seem to accept that thought today.
Why have so many lost faith in reason? Unfortunately, there can be great comfort in being a victim of an out-of-control world. If we are helpless, we don’t have to help. If reason cannot solve our problems, we don’t have to think. We can be free to engage in complaint, conflict and of course conspicuous consumption.
This is a prescription for an escalating nightmare. It is a nightmare that will not end through following the path of religion alone. Rejecting reason for divine revelation is as dangerous as rejecting faith on the assumption that science will solve all our ills. Finding our way in a complex and confusing world will require both reason and faith. Rejecting either – or placing sole reliance on either – leads to unbalanced lives as well as unbalanced nations.
We need to restore balance to our heads and our hearts. We need to acknowledge that careful science and caring religion have both enhanced our lives, just as we acknowledge that irresponsible science and intolerant religion have damaged them. While science did not create global warming or family disintegration, scientists who acted like their sole responsibility was to their hypotheses and not the hypothetical implications of their creations have surely contributed to many of our current problems. While religion did not create violence or poverty, people of faith who acted like their sole responsibility was to the holy book and not to eradicating poverty with holy practice surely contributed to the social disparities that breed the ill-clothed and ill-fed who see violence as essential if not justified.
We need to restore faith in our reason even as we restore reason in our faith. If the Founding Fathers sought to enshrine reason in the guidance of our lives, they also accepted that faith would give us the moral framework to guide the exercise of that reason. Either without the other leads to inner and ultimately outer terror.
“We are really another people,” Thomas Paine said in the same letter to the Abbe Raynal in 1782, “and cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice.” Let us hope he was correct.
posted by Responsible Leader @ 7:16 AM
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