It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? A true believer is someone who is an unshakable believer, someone who doesn’t waver in the face of pressure. This is not a sometime believer, a maybe believer, or a false believer. This is someone who will stand up to whatever challenges there are and will always be a strong supporter. This is someone with strong faith and intensity of purpose. This is someone who has carefully considered other beliefs and causes, and is convinced that this is the cause to which he or she is true. This is the kind of individual that every organization wants to have on its side. If it has true believers, it is going to go far, and will be able to overcome almost any obstacle. Whatever needs to be done to get true believers on your side is what is right to do. Then you can achieve your magnificent goals. That’s just super.
Or is it super? Maybe it isn’t super. Maybe it is awful. Maybe none of us should be a true believer in anything. Maybe we all need to keep our minds open at all times. Maybe the world keeps changing. Maybe what is moral and right today will not be moral and right tomorrow. Maybe what is right for one person or people is not right for another person or people. Maybe, in fact, if we are true believers, we fail to see the value in other thoughts, other lines of reasoning, other faiths, other social systems. Maybe, in fact, one of the worst things we can do is to be a true believer. Maybe if we lock ourselves into one only position, we never change, never grow and never progress in life. It may be even worse than that. It may be that. It may be, as Eric Hoffer says, the true believer is responsible for the majority of all human suffering on this planet.
In case you have the slightest doubt, the second of these two analyses appears to be the most correct. Our world is currently full of fanatics who are bombing, hating and murdering, all in the name of their one true belief or religion. No religion is completely immune from this fanaticism. All religions fail to some degree to be moral and loving, some more than others. True believers are ripping up the stability of our societies with wanton abandonment. They are committing cruel and inhuman acts on other humans in the name of their favorite god or religion. And none are worse than those religions which think the most highly of themselves but are the most primitive, namely the three Abrahamic religions. Those who have the strongest belief in a personal god are those who are the worst true believers and those who are committing the worst atrocities.
We do understand. Our world is a chaotic place. Everywhere we turn there are pressures to believe in a certain way, behave in a certain way, be a member of a certain group, show allegiance to a certain part of our society. There are conformist and non-conformist pressures in every direction. There are passionate arguments for and against evolution, homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, gun control, capital greed, environmental protection, the protection of civil rights, declared or undeclared war. We scarcely know which way to turn or whom to believe. Then we also find every religion clamoring for attention, members and commitment. Each of them claims that they have the one true way to find peace in life and a place in heaven. Every time we turn around there is someone who is threatening our life and possessions. Life is treacherous. We can lose it at any turn or have it all torn to pieces around any corner. No wonder we turn, almost in desperation, to some group, nation or religion to which we can give our full allegiance. Finally all the pieces seem to fit together. We don’t need to worry about any of this stuff anymore. We have the answers.
Well, it does make it easier to be a true believer. Once that binding contract is written in our minds and in our hearts, we find our direction in life. My country, right or wrong. My company, right or wrong. My religion, right or wrong. Challenge any one of my group, or challenge any one of our beliefs, and you challenge me too. We are all in this together in our true believer groups, because we know we have the right answers. Commitment to a just cause is certainly commendable, and devotion to duty is admirable. Putting your money, your time and effort where your mouth is, seems morally correct. We all find it easier to commit whatever resources we possess if we are convinced that our cause is just. There is moreover nothing wrong with making a commitment and sticking to it. Most of our society would fall on its face if we did not do our best to make a decision about which cause to support and then stay with it.
It is not the matter of making a commitment to a cause that later turns out to be wrong. It is the matter of making a commitment to what appears to be a just cause and then closing the door forever. We can’t do that and remain sane. We have to always keep questioning. We got into the Korean war, finally realized our stupidity and pulled out of it. The Vietnam war was never right. Finally enough of the American public protested, and we got out of it. The Iraq war has been an awful mistake. Eventually enough of the American public will protest to convince our egomaniac leaders that we need to get out. Hopefully that will be some time before all of the Arab world has learned to hate us forever, but right now it is questionable if it will be soon enough. At least, as far as these territorial wars are concerned, we seem to eventually recover our senses and decommit our true believerships. We are utter failures, however, when it comes to our personal god religions Once a true believer there, we are a true believer forever.
Our rationality takes a vacation when we talk religion. It becomes even worse when we talk about Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These personal god religions hold hordes of fanatics who are wrecking our world. One can call them true believers, conservative elements, reactionaries, literalists, or any other alternative name for fanaticism, but they sure have their minds closed. They are charging ahead to kill anyone else who does not share their provincial belief in their provincial god. Muslims kill Muslims and foreign soldiers. Israelis kill Palestinians and Palestinians kill Israelis. Muslims want to make Afghanistan and Iraq religious states. You can throw democracy out the door if those two countries become theocracies. Bible believers want to put “saved again” Christians on the Supreme court, in control of congress and in the presidency of the United States. Narrow-minded zealots want to put the stone tablet commandments of a tribal society in our court houses and government buildings that are supposed to serve all. We find it impossible to believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Confucianists and Hindus would be pleased.
Our founding fathers knew better. They knew that we had to keep religion out of democracy or it would fail. They were passionately defensive of any person’s right to believe as he or she saw reality best. They were equally passionate about establishing a government of the people, by the people and for the people. They knew this meant allowing freedom of all religious expression and could never be achieved through any one narrow religious belief. They knew that religion had to be never joined in any way to our government if it was going to stay a democracy. They certainly saw that right. Now, true Christian believers threaten to corrupt that government of the people, by the people and for the people by binding it to their bigoted, intolerant religion. American democracy is in trouble.