Thursday, January 15, 2004
“Loyalty to a person and whatever they say or do, that’s the opposite of real loyalty, which is loyalty based on inquiry, and telling someone what you really think and feel—your best estimation of the truth instead of what they want to hear.” Paul O’Neill, former Treasury chief, as quoted in TIME
A few nights ago the friends still at home got together for the evening. Mere cooked baked ziti and garlic bread, I made chicken marsala, the boys brought wine, and we had a lovely night of eating, talking, and a failed attempt at Trivial Pursuit. Because we always end up debating something or other, I asked a few of my normal questions. The one that I enjoyed the most this night sprung out of a, “What is your personal philosophy?” question, as everyone had interesting answers for that. (We had a Premed with Theology minor, Econ majors who are interested in Philosophy, History and Political Science major, English major with Gender Studies minor, and it was a party. I love smart people.) So the branch question is:
“Is blind faith ever a good thing?”
Of course, first we argued it in terms of Crusades and 9/11 and religion in general and agreed that the answer was no, but Dan made an interesting point: What about blind faith in yourself?
Well, it’s possible to believe in yourself and still check your premises, was the argument made, and in the end everyone agreed. I don’t think that blind faith can be good. Any intelligent, thoughtful person I know has had to question almost everything he or she believes in order to come to the rational conclusions that he/she can then really be sure of. And when the order is questioned from a different perspective, being able to step back, consider, and decide again, whether modifying, changing, or staying the same, is the way to arrive at a conclusion you can be sure is right for you at the time. Believing in anything because it’s what you’ve been told seems irresponsible to me. Maybe it is right for some people…for those without the courage or intelligence to decide for themselves may need a guiding structure to get through life, and that could be all they need. But for me, personally, I think the answer will have to be a resounding no.
“Self-esteem is the consequence, expression, and reward of a mind fully committed to reason.” Nathaniel Branden, in Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
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A few nights ago the friends still at home got together for the evening. Mere cooked baked ziti and garlic bread, I made chicken marsala, the boys brought wine, and we had a lovely night of eating, talking, and a failed attempt at Trivial Pursuit. Because we always end up debating something or other, I asked a few of my normal questions. The one that I enjoyed the most this night sprung out of a, “What is your personal philosophy?” question, as everyone had interesting answers for that. (We had a Premed with Theology minor, Econ majors who are interested in Philosophy, History and Political Science major, English major with Gender Studies minor, and it was a party. I love smart people.) So the branch question is:
“Is blind faith ever a good thing?”
Of course, first we argued it in terms of Crusades and 9/11 and religion in general and agreed that the answer was no, but Dan made an interesting point: What about blind faith in yourself?
Well, it’s possible to believe in yourself and still check your premises, was the argument made, and in the end everyone agreed. I don’t think that blind faith can be good. Any intelligent, thoughtful person I know has had to question almost everything he or she believes in order to come to the rational conclusions that he/she can then really be sure of. And when the order is questioned from a different perspective, being able to step back, consider, and decide again, whether modifying, changing, or staying the same, is the way to arrive at a conclusion you can be sure is right for you at the time. Believing in anything because it’s what you’ve been told seems irresponsible to me. Maybe it is right for some people…for those without the courage or intelligence to decide for themselves may need a guiding structure to get through life, and that could be all they need. But for me, personally, I think the answer will have to be a resounding no.
“Self-esteem is the consequence, expression, and reward of a mind fully committed to reason.” Nathaniel Branden, in Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
