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You can’t and shouldn’t blindly trust anybody

Last week I heard at one of the local radio stations a two-hour interview with an “expert” who said rigid systems of beliefs have a negative impact on people and on society in general, mainly among those who blindly follow what others say.

To illustrate his point, this “expert” read a quote from Voltaire, the famous French writer who lived in the 18th century. Quote: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

This is, indeed, a powerful quote warning us of the danger of uncritical thinking. Ideas are always followed by action. If somebody leads us into believing absurd ideas, our actions will be not only absurd, but also cruel.

The problem is that, contrary to what this “expert” said, Voltaire never said the phrase the “expert” on “separating reality from illusion” shared.

There is, however, a similar thought that Voltaire expressed in one paragraph of the eleventh letter included in his Questions about Miracles, a series of writings published in 1765. In that letter, Voltaire says, “Certainly, he who can turn you absurd can also turn you unjust.”

As the context of the quote shows, Voltaire was not speaking about political ideologies (even if the quote can easily be applied to them). He was speaking against the invocation of certain religious beliefs (specifically, certain biblical passages) to justify conflicts, struggles, and wars.

According to Voltaire, those religious beliefs are “absurd.” In the same letter we already quoted he says those beliefs are also “incomprehensible, contradictory, and impossible”.  And they are also dangerous, because they lead (as it has happened many times) to civil and religious wars, and even to the tribunals of the Inquisition.

Let’s be clear: I was listening to an “expert” on the radio talking about the need to separate illusion from reality and to develop our own critical thinking skills, and this “expert” wrongly quotes Voltaire, sharing something he probably just found online.

If this “expert” (who will remain nameless) writes a 320-page book to show that all rigid system of beliefs cause social problems and neurological problems for the believer, and one of the first things he does is misquoting a famous philosopher -or at least he provides the wrong translation and without proper attribution-, what can we expect or accept from the rest of his book?

And if we can’t trust this “expert,” who said he traveled around the world during many years interviewing many scientists and religious leaders for his book, who then can we really trust?

If he is mistaken, either by design or negligence, in something so small and obvious at the very beginning of his book, we can naturally assume that perhaps there are bigger mistakes or acts of negligence, or perhaps plain deception, in other parts of his book.

And if one can’t trust this “expert,” what can we say about many other “experts”? After all, everybody being interviewed by the media is always introduced as an “expert.” You can draw your own conclusions.

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