The truth shall make you free
IT IS arguably true that all humans spend their lives seeking truth. “And what is truth?” Pontius Pilate asked. Truth means an indisputable fact, being in accord with reality. As I stand on the sidelines and watch pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers shout at each other, I wonder where the truth is in all this.
Believe it or not, as much as we humans value truth, we do not agree on where it is to be found, nor therefore on what it is. Fundamentalists of one stripe believe that truth is to be found in the Bible and nowhere else; another stripe of fundamentalist believes truth is found only in the natural and social sciences, everything else being irrational and phantasm. Both positions are false and betray a shallow understanding of their blind faith.
Biblical fundamentalism fails to appreciate that the very God they repose belief in as the creator of the universe is the author of everything in it, including the laws of science (e.g., physics, chemistry and biology); and God made the laws of science discoverable by the human intellect, and able to develop useful things, like electricity, motor cars, cell phones and vaccines. If God is not behind science and its achievements, then God is somehow deficient and lacking in power.
Scientists – who claim to be data-driven – should not assert that there is no reality outside of what they can detect and observe, because they cannot produce any data to support that hypothesis. Scientists who claim there is no God or spiritual reality have broken the rules of their discipline; it is a logical impossibility to prove a negative. An honest scientist (positivist, empiricist) can be agnostic, but not atheist.
DENYING GOD’S POWER
Those who say that they depend on God to save them from COVID19, and believe therefore that to take the vaccine is admission of a lack of faith in God, are denying God’s power to work through vaccines. They are making too sharp a distinction between the sacred and the secular.
And those secularists who bleat that the natural and social sciences have the solution to the woes of the world lack humility, and are in denial. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, diseases proliferate, and the development of underdevelopment proceeds apace. Science – like everything else – has its limitations, and scientists are guilty of exaggerating its achievements.
For example, no vaccine so far developed can prevent COVID19, nor cure it; that in itself is not problematic; my wife and I are fully vaccinated because we believe that if we get infected, the virus will not kill us. Yet, scientists tell us that if some percentage of us are fully vaccinated, Jamaica as a population will achieve “herd immunity”. How can the herd become immune, if the individual cannot become immune? It seems to me that the scientists are overstating their case, and this brings their credibility on other issues into question with the citizenry.
Both sets of fundamentalists are unreasonable, have departed from reason. The biblical fundamentalists want the Bible to tell them to take the vaccine before they will do it, and the scientists want us all to believe the vaccine can do more than it is able to do.
And so, where is the truth that will set us free?
We need to be reasonable. The vaccines we have are what we have. We would like them to be able to do more, but they can’t. They can’t prevent or cure infection, but they can prevent or reduce serious symptoms and death. That is the truth. And that should be enough.
As a people we are so distrustful of authority that some of us are prepared to believe anything, without evidence or data: the vaccine will alter our DNA; the vaccine will make me sterile; the vaccine contains a computer chip so the government (US or Jamaican) can track us. Our penchant to believe outrageous religious doctrines is reflected in that fact that Jamaica has more Christian denominations than anywhere else on the planet. These COVID-19 heresies are an extension of our religious gullibility.
DISTRUST
Our distrust extends to our traditional churches, which are no longer trusted as sources of truth. Based on the application of reason (also created by God) to revealed scriptures, modern theology is able to make sense of the world, evil, our humanity and the transcendent and immanent divinity. Secularism and ethical relativism propose either that science provides all the explanation we need or that there is no explanation. This is an anti-intellectual position born of intellectual laziness.
Some say, “But I have heard that people have died after taking the vaccine; am I not risking my life getting vaccinated.” Let us reason it out.
People die every day, from a variety of causes. Today I might eat an apple, and then tomorrow I might die. Is eating the apple the cause of death? Is the fact that one event occurs before the other the cause of it?
When we teach students how to conduct experimental enquiry, we require there to be two samples: the experimental sample and the control. The same intervention is made in both, and the results measured. The difference in results is inferred to be due to the intervention.
I have no doubt that people will die after taking the vaccine, both in the experimental sample and the control sample. It is not logical to conclude that the people who die after taking the vaccine died because of the vaccine.
The truth that will set us free is a healthy approach to both science and religion, based on logic and reason. Our education system is deficient, in that it does not teach us how to reason, and that is why many of us will fall for anything, and some will die needlessly.