Could billions of people be wrong

Could billions of people be wrong?

Although there is much more that could be said about all of the issues we’ve looked at so far, it is probably time to stop and take stock.

First, a reality check. We’ve splashed a lot of cold water on a lot of common beliefs. Is it really credible that so many other people could be so wrong? Isn’t this just a wee bit pushy of us?

Actually, no, it’s not pushy at all. On the contrary, we can be quite confident that most of the world is wrong. This is not opinion – it’s fact. We can be sure of it because no more than a relatively small minority actually agrees about key doctrines. The largest more-or-less unified group is the Roman Catholics, who comprise less than 20% of the world’s population. If they are right, more than 80% of the world is wrong. If anyone else is right, considerably more than 80% of the world is wrong. So we know for sure that most people are wrong. If most, then why not all, or nearly all?

The sad truth is that anybody can be wrong. It’s so easy, even I can be wrong (of course, I’m a professional; don’t try this at home!). The hard thing is being right. Being right is so hard, in fact, that it is quite possible that nobody is right. We don’t even understand ourselves, let alone everyone else, the rest of the world, the rest of the universe, and the fundamental nature of reality and truth. Pretty much the only way to avoid being wrong is not to hold any opinions at all – but of course that’s not a realistic option, either. So chances are that very nearly 100% of people are wrong about something important.

Setting yourself apart from most of them, therefore, should not really be a problem, at least not in terms of thinking that maybe – just maybe – you are grasping onto a few things that might be true.

But we have been speculating a lot about what might be true and what seems to be false. In the end, all of this is merely background. Truth is important, but it is not the most important thing to everyone. I’m thinking of the way William Saroyan describes a character in one of his plays: he knew the truth, but was looking for something better.

Beyond Truth

Most of us, if asked, will praise the importance of truth, but this does not reflect how we live our lives. Day to day, we are just trying to get by, trying to be good to ourselves and the people we care about, and generally attempting to be happy and stay out of trouble. “Truth” is not, and frankly does not need to be, an active part of most of our thoughts and plans.

Still, the rational folks among us would like to think that truth guides action in subtler ways – that even when we are not explicitly thinking about truth, what we know (or believe) guides what we do. So ultimately, truth is very important indeed.

This viewpoint isn’t exactly wrong, but it’s only part of the story. For the opposite is also the case. Our impressions of what is true and false often arise from what we do. We act in a certain way, and we like the results. We act in another way, and we don’t like the results. Over time, we tend to favor the actions that satisfy and reward us, and we tend to reject those that harm or displease us. Our perceptions of truth are modified by, or even formed by, these reactions.

In the end, few of us will change our lives because either we or someone else has persuaded us of some Grand Truth. Rather, we change because we find that what we have been doing (where “doing” includes the activity called “believing”) is not working all that well for us, and/or because we come upon some other approach that seems more promising and, ideally, that we find works better for us.

Truth has its benefits, but a false belief can work. And a true belief can fail to work. So the real question – for us and for all those other billions of people – is not simply “What is true?” but beyond that, “What works for you?”

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