The Only Thing More Dangerous Than an Idea Is a Belief

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 24 October 2024 Nowadays, I'm re-reading the Lebanese-American thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb's books and ideas. He has been described as "one of the most influential writers in the world today" and "a modern icon", and is famous for his philosophical musings on uncertainty, randomness, and probability. Taleb has a Ph.D. in mathematical probability theory from the University of Paris. One of his famous quotes is my constant intellectual companion: "The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief." Very true. This quote perfectly articulates the power, danger, and potential of ideas. Ideas can be incredibly powerful, but when they become beliefs, they can become dangerous. When someone holds a belief firmly, it can be almost impossible to convince them otherwise and can lead to bad and even dangerous decisions or actions. This emphasizes the importance of critically and carefully considering ideas before accepting them as beliefs and encourages us to have an open mind when it comes to ideas in order to avoid danger. I've been reiterating this for many years that beliefs could be potentially dangerous because they (beliefs) are hardened ideas or crystallized perceptions. If you’ve said a prayer, avoided a black cat, visited a psychic or taken extra precautions on Friday the 13th, then your behaviour bears witness to the power of blind or unquestioning faith. Beliefs underlie, drive and explain a lot of human behaviour, some of which may leave many dumbfounded. Beliefs, on a deeper or more grievous level, can explain a person’s support of terrorism, refusal to undergo life-saving medical intervention (what do the Pentecostal Christians or the followers of Jehovah's Witnesses do?) or even justification for mass suicide. In his compelling book, Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions are So Compelling (Prometheus Books, 2018), Glendon Psychology Professor James Alcock unpacked how beliefs operated in the human brain and, importantly, how they could be dismantled by critical thinking. Since almost all beliefs lack flexibility, humans tend to act in an obstinate manner. Beliefs are harmful, if not always dangerous, because they're based on irrational thinking. Believing in the Hereafter, Hell, Hellfire, Heaven, The Day of Judgement, Seven Heavens and all that jazz can make a person rigid and rancid. He'll go to any length to defend his asinine beliefs and may even resort to violence or verbal violence if his/her stupid beliefs are questioned and challenged. A belief always carries an underlying assertion and affirmation that I can never be wrong. But a person sans any belief is open to a cornucopia of all sorts of views. I've never believed in any god and religion but I've the honesty to say that I could be wrong because it's my perception or idea that there's no god. I've not yet allowed my idea to become a belief. You can study comparative religions only when you've no belief in anything, in any god or faith. All my professors of comparative religions at world's premier universities had no particular religious’ beliefs. They didn't even call themselves atheists. A belief is a social nomenclature. At the same time, I've the integrity to accept the fact that I could have subconscious beliefs even I'm not aware of. Only an evolved soul like the Buddha can exist without beliefs but even the Buddha believed that women could desecrate the sanctity of a monastery. So, he resisted and resented his foster mother's entry into the monastery but eventually relented when his favourite disciple Anand persuaded him. We're all humans; crawling and living in a state of ignorance and utter nonsense. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/dangerous-idea-belief/d/133524 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism