The search for guidance

In my discussions with believers and atheists alike, one of the things that often strike me is how it seems perfectly acceptable for many to believe that most other people around them are simply unable to handle the truth: A very animalistic vision of the world, stating that we must either be followed or followers. Basically, we constantly get this strange and fuzzy feeling that humankind appears to be clueless and in desperate need of guidance; that things just wouldn't work if we didn't have smart leaders out there, pulling the strings. Little do we seem to realize the terrible implication attached to a belief like that: If this assumption was to be true, it would suggest that we just cannot realistically aspire to remain genuine, humble and autonomous at the same time.

It instead suggests that if we truly want to be successful in life, we must hide the truth from most, ensuring that they remain enslaved. Not doing this would basically mean living our lives as sheep, unaware of all the fun we're missing. Finally, any attempt to stay "in between" would condemn us to a life of confusion caused by a lack of both guidance and ruling ambition. It also seems a little strange that the large majority of people around us are, at least in our perception, the ones who we feel are in need of this "guidance". And yet these doomed-to-be "followers" who we are semi-consciously despising for their blissful ignorance, are also quite certainly under a very similar impression about us. Can this possibly be a valid conception of reality?

Speaking of guidance, have you ever wondered what it is that makes certain insects go completely crazy whenever they get close to a lit light bulb? A quite plausible hypothesis I’ve read from the evolutionary scientist as well as best-selling author Richard Dawkins, starts by pointing out that over the millions of years during which these insects evolved, there were no artificial light sources; just the sun and the moon. Naturally, these insects may have acclimated themselves to making use of the latter as a reliable way to orient in space. According to this theory, it seems easy enough to assume why they would become really confused at the sight of an artificial light source, especially in the middle of the night.

Since they’re not used to being so close to the actual light source, it probably fools their calculations, leading them to a painful death caused by the heat generated by incandescent lighting. Let's face it, if you're going to try using the position of the sun to calculate the angle at which you should be flying, but end up thinking that the boiling hot light bulb above you is actually the sun, your trajectory is doomed to be as wrong as wrong can possibly get. To put this ironically, the popular notion that we seem to be “hard-wired” to believe things despite insufficient evidence, does seem to bare some truth, even for insects.

Curiously, when it comes to our human ways of handling such mental guidance issues, defenders of most religions love to use the general observation that we seem "hard-wired for belief". They like to argue that it must mean we're searching for something divine, or at least capable of giving us the feeling of being part of something larger than us: a feeling of transcendence. Perhaps they’re right about the feeling or even about the search for divine revelation; anybody could be right without evidence, even if only by accident. But this feeling does not appear to be exclusive to religious experiences. We've all probably experienced it in one context or another, whether it was seeing our favorite team winning an important sporting event, a large-scale music concert that we waited for years to see, or from practicing meditation alone in a cave for an extended period of time.

It is a matter of fact that most humans crave this feeling, and organized religions, because of their mystical claims and group structures, happen to be very good at providing it; at least, they seem capable to do so for a large majority of people. Let's stay honest though. Can any feeling, however extraordinary is it to the person who experiences it, actually say anything useful about the nature of the cosmos? Is it not true that the same feeling could have just as well been attributed to Poseidon or Osiris, had it been experienced by someone else thousands of years ago? What's much more likely to be happening when we attribute transcendence to a supernatural cause, is that we're experiencing a very common kind of mental miscalculation called confirmation bias. We are naturally inclined to try proving our preconceptions by prioritizing the evidence appearing to be confirming them. Any evidence against is given less, or no importance; therefore, we always feel right. We don't do it only with religion; this is basically the way our brain works. Perhaps is it needless to say: this is also the exact opposite of how science works.

It is also one of the major reasons why the discovery of science has opened a floodgate of untapped potential for humans. Science is about trying to prove ourselves wrong. It is the antidote to the illusion of rightness that has plagued our development since the beginning of times. Now, looking at this from the perspective of another species that spent millions of years developing a working guidance mechanism and is now heading to extinction simply because it cannot adapt to its changing environment, I cannot help but consider the possibility that when it comes to our most basic human instincts, religion could be quite analogous to that kind of misguidance. Those who cannot adapt are just less likely to succeed in a future riddled with change. They would be better off developing a new guidance system rather than trying to rely on an old-fashioned one that works only some of the times. But why is it then that most of us humans hold so passionately to religion, grabbing to the scraps of data that it can still claim to explain, refusing to acknowledge that it explains less and less, day after day? Confirmation bias, perhaps?

Over the course of our own evolution, we have been in the dark about many questions related to human suffering, several of which we now have scientific answers to. We know that for a period roughly estimated to 100,000 years, our ancestors average life expectancy was just twenty years. Life was not about seeking happiness but more like a never-ending horror movie. Seeing loved ones die for all sorts of unexplainable causes, living in constant fear of the next natural disaster, hiding day and night from all kinds of dangerous predators, we were vulnerable and clueless; if a divine creator truly existed, then considering just this, I think we could justly question his compassion. As time passed, we developed increasingly complex models to explain things that were deeply affecting us, in the best way that we could. These models gave birth to religion and later, philosophy. Religions evolved into social structures and became used as ways to keep large communities together, ways to rule over entire countries by claiming power from a divine authority.

Many of us, religious or not, now see all the fabrication and brainwashing tactics used. We understand that the critical reason why the big religions of today are still surviving, is child indoctrination. However, most of us still believe that religion is a necessary crutch for a majority of the "weak-minded followers" we secretly despise (and count ourselves apart from, of course). Even some of our greatest scientists tend to see religion as something like chemotherapy: We know it does a lot of harm but because there's no better treatment available, we don't really have a choice but to go along with it. Too many of us still cannot help but try to conciliate myth with reality. Some literally teach the biblical creation story to their children as fact, in spite of the evidence for evolution. Others criticize science for not knowing everything; the list of absurdities said in the name of religion goes on and on. We just can't seem to be able to adapt. Instead, we've come to accept the terrible side effects of faith, and have learned to live with its complications.

We have also been taught by religion that it is not only okay but necessary to lie about our beliefs when people we know are afflicted by death. We pretend that we know their loved ones are in a better place; worse, that they will meet again someday. But in fact, our own doubts transpire in the way we dread the loss of our own. Rather than being happy that they're leaving for a better place, we cry like we'll never see them again. Most of us have grown up to understand the improbability of life after death but because we are so dependent on each other and because of the social implications of religion, we seem unable to let go, for the sake of others whose feelings we do not want to hurt. In fact, the main reason for which we need religion... is probably religion itself.

For an instant, please reflect upon the educational system of any secular country. Even in such environments, since early childhood, we have all been made accustomed to being grouped and subjected to an all-knowing authority from whom we had to follow instructions and learn without questioning too much. Do you sometimes stop and wonder why it is that most college students seem to find that their philosophy class is biased towards the teacher’s views? The reason seems to me quite simple: our school system, however secular it tries to be, was designed centuries ago by religions, with religious goals in mind. Just like when a company changes its direction, the previous owners may have left already; the business structure remains similar for a while still.

Will there ever be hope for our descendants to build a society in which everyone can be allowed to reach his full psychological, emotional and intellectual potential? It is hard to tell but one thing is sure: the only real answers we'll ever find to the mysteries of life are not located in a book; they lie in the most determining quality that we have come to develop over the last centuries: unconstrained curiosity. How interesting in fact, that curiosity does not require any kind of external guidance. In high doses, it does sometimes kill the cat, as the saying says; but more than often, it is exactly what allows us to break out of the mold and come up with interesting new purposes.

We are by far the most adaptable species alive on Earth today. We have survived for so long, not because we were more aggressive, or stronger, or cleverer than other species, but because we could adapt to change. And change is coming for us; it will keep coming as long as we live. Polls being conducted all around the world suggest that religion is disappearing at a steadily increasing rate. Even in the most religious countries like Brazil, statistics are betraying our unsatisfiable willingness to search further for the truth, no matter how inconvenient it may turn out to be. This trend is observable and understandable. Regardless of the difficulties involved in adapting to the new issues we will face in an increasingly atheistic world, we can already benefit from recognizing the placebo effect of faith and prayer. We have everything to gain from seeing faith for what it is; much to lose if we keep relying on myth in a delusive and fictitious search for guidance.