You might think that this chasm I am exploring lies between liberals and conservatives, or between the secular and the religious, but that does not seem to be the case.
I know a conservative or two who stand on my side of the gap, and a great many liberals who stand on the other. And, I admit, I'm not always on the same side myself.
It's not so much a matter of what one believes, as how one goes about believing.
Mark Twain wrote that some people use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamppost: more for support than illumination.
This seems to be a central part of the divide. When I was planted firmly on the other side, each new piece of information was either evidence I could use to defend The Truth, or evidence that had to be explained away in defense of The Truth.
Since then, I've become less trusting of capital letters.
The problem—across the political and religious spectrum—is partly the belief that some ideas are "good" and others are "bad". It's the same problem whether we're talking about Orthodoxy or Political Correctness.
If an idea is "bad", then I am tainted, even for considering it, long before I've looked at the evidence. My only hope is to defend myself from thinking about it—even before I understand it.
But it's impossible to discover whether an idea is true, or false, without considering it, without holding oneself open to the possibility long enough to test it.
The result of taking a moral stance toward ideas is that we do not really understand the ideas themselves, or the evidence for and against them.
Instead we find ourselves making judgments based on rhetoric. Instead of asking "is this true, and if it is, what does that imply?" we ask "where will this train of thought lead, and do I approve of the destination?"
Since that way of thinking does not lead to understanding, we run a great risk of being wrong on both counts.
On the world stage, this kind of rhetorical thinking seems to be playing itself out on both sides of the struggle. The Islamic terrorists are, by all accounts, closed to considering anything that might challenge their worldview.
Ideas, for them, are tools of rhetoric in a battle of Good against Evil. Anyone who questions their approach is not just wrong, but Bad as well. They are determined to learn nothing that might keep them from Staying the Course.
Sound familiar?
The struggle to avoid this mistake, to stay open to the facts and go where they lead us, is a sort of spiritual discipline on the individual level. On the global level, it may be necessary to the survival of humanity.
At least, that's what I think today.
