The Fallacies of Religious Clerics by N. Fakhr - HTML preview

Praising Those Who Do Not Doubt

Religious clerics often describe those who believe what they say as faithful and pure-hearted, while describing those who have doubts as weak in faith or impure at heart.

In this way, they increase the confidence of people who have no questions about their religion and readily accept what religious clerics tell them. At the same time, this sends an indirect warning in advance to those who have doubts and may not accept what the clerics say.

But we know that the path to discovering the truth passes through doubt and questioning.

In almost every field other than religion, people who question and doubt are generally valued more highly. They are also more likely to be expected to reach higher levels of scientific knowledge and professional skill.

Of course, if I were a religious cleric and someone made this criticism of me, I would deny it. I would say:

“Questions are highly respected in my religion.”

I might give other similar answers as well.

But whatever I say, the effect of the method described above is contrary to that claim.

After all, praising strong faith means praising the absence of doubt and questioning.

Consider a scientist in physics, for example. We would never praise a physicist merely for standing firmly by a hypothesis while refusing to doubt it or test whether it is true or false.

In the search for truth, refusing to doubt a belief is not a sign of strength.