I missed the Veritas Forum at OU. I tend to shy away from places where Truth, with a capital T, or Veritas, with a capital V, are headlined. But the matter of how we know what we know ' about the world and our place in it ' is certainly worthy of discussion.
Myths have evolved in all societies throughout history to provide understanding of these things. Given the capacity of the human brain for abstraction, it is inevitable that such myths arise. They are based on the understandings that people have of the world at the time the myths arise ' based on people's life experiences.
We have a deep need for relationships with others. Our capacity for abstraction lets us easily create imaginary friends. We see our children do it. We do it as adults under the name of theology. We also have a deep biological drive for survival ' the will to live. We see it in all plants and animals. Without it, and the accompanying drive for reproduction, no species survives. The abstraction that arises from this will to live is eternal life ' featured in some form in all religions. Whether or not God or gods exist, or if there is eternal life, are open questions. But human creation of these ideas is a result of our capacity for abstraction.
Our fundamental drives toward life and reproduction are very strong. They come from deep in the brain stem and easily override rational thoughts that arise from the thin layer of cerebral cortex that gives us our consciousness. Even our rational thoughts are often biased by the drive to fulfill our basic biological needs of survival in a competitive world. We parse out the evidence in accordance to what our needs lead us to believe.
Our fears and insecurities lead us to want certainty ' to know The Truth. We base our knowledge, our beliefs, on the evidence we have, but it is always incomplete, especially about life's big questions. And even our interpretation of the evidence we have is biased by our life experiences. What we believe is what makes sense to us according to our own life experiences, limited as they are.
Dr. William Lane Craig (a presenter at the forum) cannot tolerate the view that religious believer's assertions are subjective assertions of tastes
but that is precisely what they are ' although the word taste is unnecessarily pejorative. The tragedy of human life is that wars are fought and endless suffering endured because of our insistence that our beliefs are more than that.
Myths have power in our lives. They help people endure suffering and accept their limited circumstances in life with grace and beauty. Myths contain important truths; they can be of great good. They are to be celebrated and used in constructive ways. But when we insist that they are literally True, we step into the abyss of human intolerance and cruelty to one another, which unfortunately we see swirling around us, seemingly in every part of the globe.
John N. Howell is a retired psychology professor. 17
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