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Credulity and Skepticism
BY Mark Shea
October 26-November 1, 2008 Issue |
Posted 10/21/08 at 7:59 AM
The devil, so
the saying goes, is the ape of God. And so one of his standard methods for
deceiving is to create parodies of good things and send them into the world in
pairs.
Why parodies? Because he cannot
make, he can only mock. So instead of love, he offers lust. Instead of justice,
he offers merciless vengeance. Instead of dignity, he offers pride. Instead of
contentment with the world’s goods, he offers greed.
Why does he send errors into the
world in pairs? So that, in fleeing one lie, you will embrace the opposite lie.
And so, for instance, he ignores the Church’s ancient affirmation of both faith
and reason and instead foments credulity and skepticism, which are to faith and
reason as carob is to fine Belgian chocolate.
Halloween is an especially good time
for the devil, for it annually introduces into our national conversation a good
solid dose of both credulity and skepticism, while encouraging us to overlook
both faith and reason.
Credulity encourages us to believe
without thinking, and skepticism encourages us to disbelieve without thinking.
Both are folly.
The credulous person accepts tales
of the supernatural without bothering to find out if they are a) true or b) from
God.
The skeptic reflexively rejects the
supernatural, not on the basis of the evidence, but on the basis of a personal
dogma that rules out the supernatural in advance of and in the teeth of
whatever evidence there may be.
Neither approach is the way of the
Catholic faith. The Church is open to the reality that God made the world to be
orderly and discoverable by reason. This fundamental faith statement is the
basis of all the sciences.
Without the basic (and
scientifically unprovable) faith that the mind can grasp reality there would be
no science.
The dogmatic skeptic who believes
that everything you cannot prove with reason should be rejected is sawing off
the branch he is sitting on, because you cannot prove with reason that reason
is reliable. We take that assumption on faith. A thorough commitment to
skepticism means the end, not just of faith, but of reason.
Conversely, the credulous person who
sees the miraculous at work everywhere and is ready to declare every water
stain on a freeway underpass an apparition of the Blessed Virgin is also acting
against both faith and reason.
Credulity will often race ahead of
the Church to embrace loony seers and visionaries who announce all manner of
non-Catholic rubbish. It will often cower in fear before such seers in
anticipation of some terrible divine judgment or demonic spectacle. That kind
of credulity is also frequently ready to see demons at work in every head cold
or hangnail — with the result that the dogmatic skeptic feels vindicated in
sneering at the supernatural.
The Catholic way is wedded to common
sense. With respect to credulity, Catholic common sense says, “Chances are the
water stain is just a water stain and not a miraculous apparition. Chances are
the cold is just a cold and not a manifestation of demonic power.” With respect
to dogmatic skepticism, Catholic common sense says, “If a person with nothing
to gain and a lot to lose reports seeing a miracle, odds are he is at least
being honest. If that honest person’s report of a miracle has solid evidence
backing it, then the sensible thing to do is praise God for a miracle.”
So when the apostles and 500
witnesses report seeing the risen Christ and live lives of suffering and
martyrdom for it, the most reasonable (and faithful) thing to do is acknowledge
that the thing happened. After all, nothing in science or the Catholic faith
really makes it impossible since God, under carefully controlled laboratory
conditions, can do whatever he likes.
Both faith and reason are grounded
in truth: the truth God has revealed about himself, and the truth he has built
into creation.
Both credulity and skepticism are
grounded in personal prejudice: a person’s will to believe or disbelieve
something based, not on the truth, but on one’s own personal preference imposed
on the evidence. Both the credulous person and the skeptic are driven to arrive
at conclusions that fit their personal prejudices.
The Catholic is free to follow the
evidence where it leads and even, when necessary, leave a mystery mysterious.
A Catholic can look at the odd
things of this world and say, “I don’t know what it means, so I will think
about it and, God willing, form a conclusion based on the evidence.”
The credulous person and the skeptic
are committed by their philosophies to not think about it
and leap to their conclusions. They must pretend they have knowledge and
understanding, when really they only have a prejudice.
Mark Shea is senior
content editor
for
CatholicExchange.com.
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