Who's Right?

Election year in the US always brings debate and strife. What’s interesting about this year is that, from healthcare to ecology, belief is at the center of the storm.

Today belief is cheap. I believe my thing. You believe yours. And we all just get along. Until someone comes along who doesn't follow the rules. There are people who just can't live and let live. And they raise an uncomfortable series of questions. Who's right? Does thinking I'm right make me intolerant? Is it disrespectful to disagree? What about decisions that affect everyone? Can we judge others' beliefs?

Sometimes we have to. I'm on my daily jog. My friend shouts at me that there's a Mac truck about to come careening around the corner. I think he's just joking. But it makes a big difference who's right! If not for the Mac truck, at least for me.

Out on my jog, I stop, and gingerly poke my head around the corner to find out. That's the key to the dilemma of conflicting beliefs. Find out! Because when push comes to shove, belief has to be based on truth.

I should always respect others, no matter what they believe. They have their conscience—with the right and the responsibility to search for the truth. But their beliefs are something else. I can't plumb the depths of my neighbor's soul. That's God's job, and he can keep it. But I can check his facts against mine, and see who's closer to the truth.

Truth as in reality. Not just an opinion. Hard fact. For me and for everyone else. Every belief is based on truth, either because we've had direct experience of it, or because we trust someone who has. What’s more, truth is a two-way road. If what I believe is true, then the opposite of what I believe has to be false. That’s Logic 101.

Comparing beliefs is a high stakes game. It always implies change for one or both of the parties involved. I have to be humble—my beliefs are subject to revision too! But it's a game where everyone wins, because everyone gains by living in the truth. The courage to compare our views with those of others, and the humility to accept whatever verdict the facts have to give us, are virtues that everyone should have in their toolbox.

So believe! And share your beliefs! Just make sure you're always searching for the truth with others, and not imposing your views on others. Belief is never just personal. It’s no quiet interior resolution. 

In mankind’s search for the truth, belief is a high-decibel loudspeaker blaring out to the world at large, “Hey! I found it!”

By Benjamin O'Loughlin