Reason Can Save Us

Know the Truth and the Truth will make you Free.

Men can recognize the truth by reasoning. Cicero tells us that men share the ability to reason with the gods; that indeed reason is the common attribute of all men and all gods. That men are continually deceived and enslaved demonstrates that reasoning, like any godlike act, isn’t easy. My father always said that fanaticism and fear run the world. It is easy to be stupid. Enemies of reason, truth, and freedom are revealed in three challenges.

I. Religious fanaticism

Let’s be clear. To say that the War Against Terror is a war against Islam, as the terrorist Nadal Hasan has, is not reasonable. America’s best allies in this War are Muslims: Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis, who fight and die everyday defending freedom from terror. But the evil they join our American Heroes in resisting is an interpretation of the teachings of Mohamed. The service of reasonable Muslims does not expiate the fact that many others interpret the Koran as justifying, even demanding, the violent conversion of all to that religion; seeking to enslave, even to kill those who resist, and denying any a choice in religion. These tenants of “radical” Islam fly directly in the face of freedom and the reason that underpins it. (To get a contrasting view check out the LDS 11^th Article of Faith.)

For eight years, vigilance and sacrifice have kept the American homeland safe from terrorist attack. That vigilance has lessened, that sacrifice questioned, and our nation has once more been attacked by a terrorist who finds his motivation in unreasoned religious fanaticism.

If free people become too tired of the struggle the terrorists will win, reason will fail, and freedom will be lost.

II. Global Warming

Radical Environmentalism is another fanatic and unreasonable religion. Climate, like weather, changes; after all, climate is simply weather over time. The claim that global warming is man-caused is not based on reason but on pseudoscience. Envious of the dominance of the “Sciences” in academia, some Historians adopt “scientific methods” in the study of History. As a result they betray reason. Social Scientists establish theories and search history for empirical proofs. As any “hypothesis” can be proven by this method, there is no reason in this “science”. Climate change devotees have taken a page form the playbook of the pretend scientists in the History Department. They concoct a claim, cherry pick evidence, and in the face of eleven years of cooling, claim that the globe is warming. Fanaticism and fear then doom the economies of the developed nations and damn the hopes of peoples just beginning to achieve the blessings of progress.

Only by reasonably seeking the truth can we be free of these lies.

III. Socialized Medicine

Let’s be reasonable. America cannot spend trillions of dollars to provide Health Care for those who will not pay for it without raising the taxes of those who work. While it is imperative to provide aid for those legitimately in need, we can draw reasonable lines to separate them from those who exploit. Politicians now intend to expropriate the product of those who labor to provide for the demands of those who will not. Their lies will garner the votes of the growing mass of non-producers; eager to trade other’s freedom for their ease. If the only penalty for not buying insurance when healthy is a modest fine, and insurance providers cannot deny those who have not paid when they come demanding coverage once they become ill, there will not be enough money in private programs to pay and taxes will have to cover the costs. To pretend otherwise is not reasonable. To pretend otherwise is not reasonable and will cost us our freedom.

Only by doing the godlike labor of reasoning will we find the truth, and save our freedom.