The Worst Deception
Dr. Charlie Webb
"The worst deception a man suffers," said Leonardo DaVinci, "is
from his own opinions."
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But you're special. And I'm special. We’re all born special. As
infants we're each the center of the universe. As teenagers most
of us think we're immortal. As aging baby-boomers three-fourths
of us believe that we look and act younger than our peers. What
makes us all think we're so special?
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The answer, as usual, is survival: "Think of it," says Robert
Wright in The Moral Animal, "zillions and zillions of organisms
running around, each under the hypnotic spell of a single truth,
all these truths identical, and all logically incompatible with
one another: 'my hereditary material is the most important
material on earth; its survival justifies your frustration, pain,
even death.' And you are one of these organisms, living your life
in the thrall of a logical absurdity."
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Being self-centered has tremendous survival value. But while
selfishness may be a virtue in infancy, it is much less so as an
adult. In fact, maturity could fairly be defined as the awakening
to the needs and wants of others. If not for personal growth
beyond selfishness, how could children be raised and how could
society ever survive?
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Religions also go through a similar maturing process. Infant
religions (i.e., "cults," such as Jonestown and Heaven's Gate)
tend toward total selfishness and are often totally oblivious to
other beliefs. Adolescent religions (e.g., medieval Moslem and
Christian Crusaders and modern evangelical fundamentalists)
strive to dominate and to convert the entire world to their
beliefs. Mature religions (e.g., Tibetan Buddhism) promote
freedom and well-being for everyone.
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Is there any real difference between a belief and an opinion? No.
And my childhood beliefs/opinions (that my mother, my hometown,
my heroes, my teams, and my religion were all the best) were
probably exactly the same as yours. Rationally we know that
thousands of mutually exclusive opinions cannot be correct, yet
the emotional power of childhood beliefs is difficult to overcome.
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In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., "We are all tattooed
in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem
superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly
out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his
imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them."
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If we factor in the eons of superstitious cultures with the
eternity of childhood gullibility, we're bound to become burdened
with some very strange customs and beliefs. For example, what
rational adult would ever start believing stories of miraculous
superpowers of elves, demons, or ghosts, or even of Zeus,
Krishna, or Jesus if they had not been indoctrinated as children?
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Religions are based on emotional needs, and most religions
fulfill the great tribal need to belong to something larger and
more powerful than ourselves. With the sole exception of pure
science, objective truth will usually be sacrificed in favor of
personal and tribal emotional needs.
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So what are we to make of each other's beliefs? For the sake of
truth I suggest we heed the words of Leonardo DaVinci (above).
And for the sake of love, perhaps we should stop taking ourselves
so seriously, instead remembering H. L. Mencken's advice that "we
must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense
and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is
beautiful and his children smart."
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