Draft Commentary on the Draft Fundamental Principles of the Cult of Free Inquiry
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We live in an age of decreasing respect for truth
and beauty. It seems that no one has the patience to listen to any argument
which cannot be compressed into a sound byte. No civilization can continue
to exist if all important decisions are made on the basis of sound bytes.
Even the academic world has begun to greet the search for truth with sophisticated
dismissals.
The cult of free inquiry opposes this trend. We believe that true assertions should be actively sought. All assertions must be tested to see if they stand on sound ground. What constitutes sound ground? For questions of fact in the visible world, the "scientific method" has been a successful method for testing. But there are other questions for which the scientific method does not seem to apply. Is there a God? Do I love my wife? What is the self? It may be difficult to specify an infallible method. However, we do request that a sincere effort be made. All resources of the whole person should be used in discovering the truth. Intuition should be used. Logic should be used. Answers should be cross-checked against other results. We are searching for the answer that is true, not the answer that makes us feel good, not the answer that our parents believed in, not the answer that will be well received by our neighbors. Representations of truth and beauty have value.This the first principle of the cult, is a religious foundation. After all, truth is an absolute value. Almost everyone will agree that knowledge can be useful on occasion. But how often is it comforting to believe a soft lie rather than look an ugly truth in the face? When is a elaborate falsehood to be used in supporting a political position? What would motivate someone to support the truth regardless of expediency? Our cult supports truth not only as a tool to obtain other goals that we may have, but as a way to express meaning and decency.We have heard many lectures on our duty to help our fellow man, but we wonder why it is overlooked that, in most cases, the most effective way to help our fellow man is to make the truth available? It has often been observed, perhaps tritely, that human power flows from knowledge. The cult of free inquiry is a minimalist religion. All cult assertions flow from our respect for truth and beauty. We could take organizational positions on many other questions, but that would disqualify the cult as a forum to address those questions. Our support of truth does not require us to proclaim our views on every possible issue as an organization. Our members can do that individually using their own voices. The creation and spread of such representations does take place in social context.This is trivially true. Human societies inherently depend on a division of labor. All significant activities require different people to interact. The idea that Romulus and Remus created Roman civilization after being raised by wolves is a myth.Common decency is needed to provide a favorable social context. The cult does not define common decency. Philosophers could argue that question for a thousand years. We hope that people will exhibit enough common decency in practice to allow an advance in culture to proceed. Let us practice common decency now, and figure out how to define it later! Private communications should be protected with strong unescrowed encryption wherever possible. This will allow tentative and personal matters to be discussed without fearing the acts of uncivilized third parties. However, unsound social justifications of false assertions should not be accepted as truth. The war continues because "God is on our side". What is the evidence that God is, in fact, on our side? It takes courage to ask such a question in a mob atmosphere. Over simplifying, we may say that relativism is the view that truth is split. The cult has no problem with this. Let the advocates of relativism support the idea that truth is split with strong facts and arguments. Social relativism is the view that regardless of whether truth is in fact split, we must pretend that it is, in order to have social peace. The hallmark of social relativism is the words "in your opinion". The phrase is used to dismiss any assertion that makes someone uncomfortable without having to address the specific facts and arguments that may support that assertion. Social relativism pretends that all assertions are equal, so there is no point in trying to determine which assertions are true, especially if an assertion makes someone uncomfortable or threatens their "self-esteem". The cult totally rejects social relativism. Social relativists abandon the search for truth because they do not believe that disputes can be addressed in a civilized manner. Peaceful discussion and debate between different, even contradictory points of view has often resulted in an advance in knowledge.Often someone will actually go out and collect evidence in order to show up "those fools on the other side". Sometimes the new evidence points in an unexpected direction.Suppression of unwanted assertions has often hampered the advance of knowledge. If an assertion is suppressed, it can not be determined if it is true or false. Declarative questions must not be solved by an appeal to force. Disputes are opportunities to advance knowledge. The chance is lost if the question is obscured by force. We do not need the large piles of dead bodies. If the energy of dispute can not flow in a destructive direction, perhaps it will be forced to flow in a constructive one. |
