I have blogged on this topic several times in the past - and yet, I believe there is so much more to dig out here. So here's a question, for you, readers, to ponder and respond to:
How does one balance the fundamental principle of independent, rational, scientific investigation of the truth (which requires one to question, doubt, seek to understand and not blindly accept) with the hard reality of an imperfect mind burdened with an imperfect understanding of rationality, preconceived notions, prejudices, cultural/social conditioning and an ego?
Put differently, as I investigate reality and try to get closer to truth, can I ever be sure that something I reject as being false is really false? For it could just be that my understanding is limited, and I'm not mature/intelligent enough to understand that it really is true...
The simple answer to this, of course, is that we try our best. Can we try and dig a little deeper into this, though? :)
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Great questions. I'm sorry to say I have no definitive answers. But I agree that we can never really be certain that we're right, because our understanding will always be limited...
Perhaps faith means that we should keep trying, regardless.
What do you think?
ah, finally a response to the questions... :)
hmm ya i guess we should of course keep trying... i think faith involves attaining something like 95% surety :) based on evidence, that is...
You know, I just heard this great quote on this radio program I was telling about that's quite relevant to the discussion of independent investigation.
"The Buddha said don't believe anything just because I said it or just because you read it in a sacred text. He said put it into practice and see for yourself if it's true."
Ya i've heard that quote before - but here a (devil's advocate) response to that - how do I even know if I'm putting something into practice sincerely? For example, if someone tells me prayer has positive effects, and I pray and find no difference - is it because it really is meaningless, or because I didn't pray sincerely/openly enough? :)
...or because you have expectations about how the prayers should be answered in a particular way and in a particular time frame.
You can bet that I will come back here on this topic, and on top of that, I will recommend it to others.
I am somewhat stunned, honestly, that I have not, in recent memory posed your question as cogently to myself. Perhaps because, you know, we don't tend to remember our Point of View, in times of stress and difficulty, we want to put that perspective out of our minds as soon as conditions change. I have found that the REAL (as opposed to a kind of superficial skimming over the top of a matter, which I think usually occurs sometime shortly after schooling) investigations don't occur when times are good. It is under the often mistakenly self-judged crisis that we begin or take up again the lab coat of investigation. Under those conditions the distortions are the rule rather than the exception but the singular prayer is that despite the distortions we can see through God's mercy, the way we should go. In saying this, I am leaving out the crowd who have not troubled themselves one whit over God's mercy or justice.
Secondly, on my observations of others' investigations, you know that science says you should have a hypothesis which you are seeking to overthrow. So, with some who are the refined product of a highly trained educational system, a matter that has a certain degree of subjectivity, can also mean that we can forgive ourselves first, for being intellectually blind on the matter. For our personal hypothesis to be overturned faces an unreasonable burden to overcome. Which means that unless some personal, or natural, or Divinely sent disaster blows away that person's comfortable position (for example the suicide of a spouse in a seemingly perfect marriage) CHANGE AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.
For an interesting point on this idea of independent investigation by a whole arm of society, I offer the 9 year investigation of the "Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse" which shows a whole society, not just the rugged individual that knew what was going on, and collectively decided the error is: a) something that cannot be overcome by human force, or b) something just not worthwhile in its payoff, for changing, or c) being compensated for elsewhere in the system or later in life, or d)? or e)? etc.
This is a 2000 page report that covered about 60 years of modern Irish society's treatment of children by Irish institutions.
Therefore I think the dilemma that you describe is even more profound when the availability of "THE TRUTH" is even more remote from the flawed human who without divine assistance tries to weigh the two metal substances in question and find the gold.
In a temporary conclusion, I would say that the investigation cannot succeed, or get very far down the road, unless they "ask" for assistance. Dr. Adib Taherzadeh puts it really well in his talks back in the '80s when he said that inquiring minds can find the answers in nature, but they cannot look at nature first, they must use the Holy Books (he says the Bahai Writings, so I am interpreting)as a guide. Otherwise the investigator will get confused and lost. At first I could not understand the seeming paradox, ie. you have to use the authority of the Messenger, to find out if "His truth" can be independently verified about His claims of Authority. I think, that dilemma's answer is
"You cannot find the answer unless you admit your total human bias in all its multitude of forms." This seems to be a Mobius strip back to your question. So maybe humility, an admission of human fraility is not one of the most popular virtues in modern Western (or Eastern) societies right now.
We are just a byproduct of the modern educational system and the rugged individualist reactions to that system sacrifice something else in order to escape to another extreme form of bias. People set themselves up as capable of measuring "truth" from "falsehood". To quote my old professor, the late Dr. Dan Jordan, "The most delightful place to be in as a teacher of useful knowledge to others (including ones own children ) is to be ignorant of your own ignorance."
So what did I do with that long comment? :-) Probably nothing more than add emphasis to Bright Butterfly's "Great questions." ;-)
Thanks for your detailed, comments, EdoRiver. Your comment about people not TRULY investigating unless they reach a time of crisis is interesting - I think that's often very true. I think your point about humility and investigating succeeding when we ask for assistance really hit the nail on the head - it is absolutely true that if we try to decipher everything for ourselves, we will totally get lost in the sea of conflicting opinions/ideas out there... It would be quite impossible to decide what the truth really is. After all, even with such well established scientific ideas like evolution or global warming, we find dissenters who use plausible-sounding arguments which I can imagine could easily mislead some people. The REALLY important thing, I agree, is to combine one's open investigation with a conscious admission of one's imperfections, and ASK for assistance. Based on what I've seen of some people's lives, and the few experiences I've had in my own, this seems to work... :)
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