Yesterday, I made a post on how our mind is a reflection of the external world, and the importance of exposing ourselves to to positive ideas, media, and language as a means of structuring our minds. The next topic I would like to cover is the avoidance of dogma; this relates to the prior topic because exposing ourselves to new thought and challenging our preexisting thoughts is the best manner to further develop our understanding of the world around us.
Through the challenging of our thoughts and the exposure to new ideas we can hope to find the higher truths about the nature of our world; furthermore, through this dialectical process (Dialectic- logical discussion of contrasting ideas) we can work together to develop higher virtues and moral standards for the world around us.
Avoidance of Dogma:
It seems that now more than ever before, dogmatic and dualistic thinking has come to dominate the mindset of many. This is manifest in all aspects of life: from ideological extremism, to the extreme levels of societal stratification that we see today. These issues stem from the “Black and White” thinking that is predominant today.
The sad truth of this world is that true objective truth often eludes us, leaving us sift through the competing sources of belief to find some semblance of meaning. More often than not we find ourselves searching for “authorities of truth” such as political and spiritual leaders to tell us how to think and what to believe. It is my contention that we gravitate towards such sources of dogma because of subconscious fear of our inability to make decisions regarding belief for ourselves. We fear that we can not trust our own God given intuition, so we instead put our trust in authorities to tell us what we want to hear. The truth is we should be afraid because the world is dangerous, full of pain, and full of hate; however, we should trust in our ability to know right from wrong and our ability to take correct actions; I believe that this is what Soren Kierkegaard meant when he said we must take a leap of faith.
In order to overcome this fear we should cultivate a softly critical demeanor towards ourselves and our understanding of the world. First, we must accept that we are fallible and that our beliefs may also be fallible; but the fallibility of our thinking is merely an aspect of the human condition and not something to worry about. Because we are fallible we must accept that not all things are as we believe them to be, we must be able to accept that we may be wrong and willing to take responsibility when we are.
Second, we must realize that partial truth exists in some form or another in many of the ideas and concepts presented as truth. As humans we are gifted with intuition and the ability to interpret information; when we critically access external sources of truth through these lenses then we are brought closer to objective truth. Similarly, we should reflect inwardly and access the beliefs that we currently hold, challenge ourselves to find fault with them, and be brave enough to correct ourselves when we do find fault in our thinking.
Rather than fearing foreign ideas and concepts because they might undermine our beliefs, we should be actively searching for ideas critical to those we hold; because it is these ideas that will temper our belief and bring us closer to objective truth. This extends towards individuals that hold beliefs that are different than our own. Rather than fearing those that think differently because they challenge our beliefs, we should value their opinions because together we are brought closer to objective truth.
More often than not I find that people surround themselves with people of the same societal strata, same ideological, and religious beliefs; many find comfort in receiving confirmation of correctness from their peers, this is the root of biased and incorrect thinking. Instead we should accept challenges to our belief head on. We should befriend those who think differently, we should try to work alongside them to develop beliefs that are transcendental of context and reach higher levels of truth.
Absolute truth that all can accept should be the goal of all humanity, once this has been reached mankind will reach heights of existence that have been previously unknown. We should shun ignorance within ourselves, and work to help others who are ignorant to see the light. Next we will cover the relationship between individuals.