Does Identity Comes In The Way Of Truth

Yesterday, I was watching Richard Dawkins’ conversation with Colin Wright. Colin Wright, being the evolutionary biologist, came up with this excellent question. To paraphrase him-

Does our identity, as atheist, liberal, or anything that we have come to put ourselves in, comes in the way, we approach objective truth?

We have to consider this because we don’t identify with processes, we identify with conclusions. We always identify with some broad categories, like we throw ourselves in a bucket and now we have to swim in the bucket.

Pre-existing bias in is the biggest obstacle on the path of truth. We have all grew up in certain environments, with some communities, and particular circumstances; and that has shaped the way we think. Our beliefs, our judgement all have shaped by all these. Can we blame anything on anyone? Before judging anyone of anything, we have take into consideration all the circumstances and environments. And if we consider all the factors, we will find anyone hopeless.

Does that mean truth is subjective? Truths might be conception of reality, but reality has to be objective, does’t it? In that case, how would be measure two truths against each other and find with goes closer to the objective reality.

I have observed this bias in all the people including myself. Appealing to the identity, makes decision-making easier for us. Take voting for example. What should be done is to evaluate each candidate on the basis of independent parameters, and only after then should we decide who to vote for. But the fact that one candidate identifies with the same cast removes all that painful process. That is the reason why castism is prevalent in India. It directly concerns with their identity, and it makes it the hardest thing to give up.

When I think about religious people denying evolution, I feel so strongly repulsive. A little more inspection would led me to realize that they haven’t inspected the phenomenon in as detail as I have. I think that once, you have read all the evidence, experimental and theoretical arguments for evolution and then consider the arguments against it, it would be impossible to deny it. I would take the definition of truth from (I don’t actually know if it was CS Lewis) paraphrasing as

Truth is a claim agreed upon everyone who went to examine it.

This is a very safe and scientific statement. Because anyone who goes to examine a claim can go with the intention of either proving it or falsifying it. And if they fail to falsify it, it becomes scientifically established. The theory of quantum mechanics is such a great example of it. Over the years, a number of experimentalists have tried to end the non-sense of quantized orbits and probabilistic outcomes. The results of their experiments, originally designed to disprove it, succeeded to prove it. Evolution is one such theory. When you listen to people who speak against evolution, you know that they haven’t read a thing about evolution, they are just defending their biases.

But the same can be said about the people who speak against religion. None of them have got much idea, including myself, who religion has to even offer. I haven’t read any of religious books, all my knowledge of Hinduism comes from TV serials. I haven’t read any Vedas and still I am sure that there is no scientific knowledge in them. (However, those who claim such thing haven’t read the texts either.)

Why do we atheists, including me, shy away from religious texts? Because we have already identified ourselves with the conclusion of atheism. And now we are working backwards. Since God is unlikely to exists, the texts written on God should be false as well. It should have been such that we read and analyze all the text and then reach a conclusion. And even if all the religious books are false, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist. God might very well exist, and sitting on a throne sighing at the puny attempts to describe him. The idea of God not existing should come from lack of evidence to his existence and not from all the atrocities committed by religious people.

Going through all this reasoning, I have decided that I will shy away from commenting anything wrongful about any religion before I have studied enough about them. I have also gathered a desire to read all the religious texts, including Geeta, the Vedas, the Bible and the Quran. That lies very far in the future. And currently, my physical TBR is just too long.

Until then, cheers!