Bad Soiled In Good

 

It’s good to remember that false beliefs tend to be nested in many more true beliefs and good intentions – a bit like how a rotten seed is buried in rich, fertile soil under a blooming garden - which I think persuades people who hold them that their false belief isn’t wrong, or it enables them to suppress their doubts about the false belief.

For example, the false belief of young earth creationism is nested in a sincere and noble desire to honour sacred texts, to protect the world from people trying to pull Christians away from the faith, and the need to respect Christian tradition. Climate Alarmism is nested in the virtue of responsible stewardship, real concerns about environmental degradation, animal welfare, good-faith concern for future generations, distrust of institutional power and irresponsibility, and a sense of ethical responsibility to act. And socialism is nested in the desire for a less unequal world, concern for the underdog, compassion for the disadvantaged, that sort of thing. Even the extreme nationalist views  are nested in some very human and often well-meaning concerns, like the desire for belonging, the need for cultural continuity, the fear of losing identity in a rapidly globalising world, alertness to the problems of uncontrolled immigration, nostalgia for historical communities, all encased in a protective impulse to preserve language, tradition, a sense of rootedness, and so forth.

Rotten seeds buried in the otherwise rich, fertile gardens of the mind are easily disregarded by those in whom they are planted, especially while looking at the iridescent bloom of the sun-baked lilies and the climbing jasmine.

But that’s not quite the full picture either, because there are also the perverse incentives, self-serving instincts, socio-cultural pressures, and the tangle of faulty reasoning that guide the hand which plants the rotten seeds - sometimes knowingly, sometimes not. At the risk of a further stretch of the analogy, these seeds are often disguised as compost, offered by well-meaning neighbours, or sold by bad actor merchants with something to gain at the buyers’ expense.

Which is why the work of tending to our own intellectual garden is an essential, continual work in progress – aided by the trowel of open, rational enquiry, the pollination of dialogue, the water of truthseeking, and the sunlight of humility.