Intellectual Freedom

Science is the search for discovered truth. Religion is the search for revealed truth. It is imperative that the searcher be aware of that difference. It is tragic when the searcher is ignorant of that difference.

Science is never a set of absolute rules, processes or facts. It is a method of looking, of discovering the way things work so that they can be made to happen by manipulating the precursors. Anyone with the knowledge and equipment can duplicate the procedure and get the same result. As the understanding of the process increases the science will also change. In science there is no final, absolute Truth. Our ability to manipulate our surroundings is ever being refined.

Religion is based on truth that is proclaimed by man and sustained by a hierarchical authority. It is usually claimed to be immutable and everlasting. But the progress of human knowledge requires some change. No one is now burned at the stake for believing the earth moves around the sun as they once were. No major religion now holds a belief that the earth is the center of the solar system. But for hundreds of years such a belief was required by the Christian Church and proclaiming otherwise was sufficient for the penalty of death.

Few Catholics believe that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are actually transmuted into the blood and flesh of Christ as they were required to state in their Catechism. It is now accepted to be a sacred symbolism by most.

Even the most fundamental of believers accepts science although many would proclaim the contrary. When we use fire to warm our bodies we are using the process of science. When we cook our food we are using the result of the scientific method even if not realizing it. And it is more apparent in the use of modern weaponry. That is the direct application of the scientific method to invent an efficient and terrible killing technique.

Over human history some instance of scientific discovery opposed by religion as being in conflict with its revealed truth often caused great human suffering. That suffering is not from uncontrolled nature but from the purveyors of religion.

Unfortunately, legitimate, credentialed members of the scientific community have been responsible for atrocities against their fellow man as well. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is an extreme example. There have been several misguided eugenic episodes in many countries including the United States. When I got my degree prefrontal lobotomies were still in the news and supported by some in the field of psychology. But rarely was suffering intentionally inflicted as it was under the auspices of religion. It should be apparent to any thinking person that much of what is taught as religion meets the definition of evil, “causing harm, wicked, pernicious”

There is nothing exceptionally insightful or uniquely novel in these random ramblings. Mankind has been musing and killing over these concepts at least since the Golden Era in Periclean Greece. But most of the world’s citizens ignore them or are lulled into stupefaction by the prepackaged sophistry of self-serving religious “leaders”. The plea here is only that each person question his or her believes with an open mind. By ignoring unquestioned teaching and rationally inspecting what you yourself observe you can achieve a wonderful intellectual freedom. The satisfaction of being able to choose for yourself what is logical, factual and true is immensely comforting. Not only will you be freed from childhood religious myths but you will learn to be analytical and discerning in other facets of your life. You will be intellectually emancipated and free to look critically at all the propaganda disseminated by misguided or manipulating leaders, both religious and commercial.