They say that nothing in life is guaranteed, except for death and taxes, but there’s one thing that comes pretty close and that’s the trouble with extremes. In almost every facet of existence, things can be –and usually are– scaled. On a scale –that is, a linear scale– you have the beginning point, a middle (center) point, and an end point. The ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ points are the extremes. For example, if the beginning point represents “white”, and the end point represents “black”, then the middle point would be “gray” –white is one extreme, black is another, but the common ground between the two is gray.
In our world, extremes are everywhere: cold/hot, heavy/skinny, all/nothing, smart/stupid, rich/poor, etc. Virtually anything can be scaled to a set of two extremes. In politics, there’s liberals (left wing) and conservatives (right wing). The overwhelming majority of politicians are either one or the other; therefore, there are very few politicians who are moderate. However, the trouble with the political scale are the ultra-liberals and ultra-conservatives. The “ultras” are the politicians who are extremely one-sided when it comes to their political philosophy. Typically, if someone’s extremely one-sided on an issue, they’re most likely operating with a closed mind. Most people would argue that a closed mind is irrational, because their unlikely to accept new possibilities.
If we step away from the social spectrum of life and look at the biological spectrum, we’ll see that the human body has a negative response to extremes. We all know that if your body temperature gets too low, you’ll die from hypothermia. And if your body temperature gets too high, you’ll die from hyperthermia. If you have no fat in your diet, your body will eventually become malnourished and death could ensue. Conversely, if you have too much fat in your diet, your body will suffer and you’ll likely develop a disease from the imbalance. Everyone knows that you’ll die if you go without water, but did you know that if you have too much water you can die, too? That just goes to show how anything –even something as benign as water– can be deadly to the body if it’s in the extreme.
Believing in Extremes
In the world of religion and spirituality, there’s no shortage of extremes. In this world, one extreme is atheism and the other is fundamentalism (or extremism). So one side believes nothing, and the other believes –well– everything (in a sense).
The problem with these two extremes is that both sides usually believe in nothing or everything “just because”. Of course, they don’t actually say, “just because”, but that’s how us folks in the middle translate their arguments. At a certain point in their lives, individuals from these extremes make a philosophical commitment to their particular belief (yeah, I consider atheism to be a belief). Once this commitment is made, all the other channels are severed, and the world turns into black and white.
The atheists believe that there aren’t any supernatural forces in the world, nor have there ever been. Atheists essentially put all of their stock in the material world. I’m not talking about Madonna’s material world, I’m talking about the physical world –the world ruled by science. In the world of science, if something cannot be observed, measured, or experimented on, it doesn’t exist.
There are fundamentalists in almost every religious/spiritual belief system. However, I’ll pick on the Christian fundamentalists here. Christian fundamentalists put all their stock in the Christian bible. The fundamentalist’s world is ruled by the bible. If it’s not in the bible, it didn’t happen (or it won’t happen). So, information that conflicts with the bible is discarded, because to them, the bible is the absolute truth.
Atheists and Christian fundamentalists are polar opposites. This is why neither side will ever “win” a debate. They view the world from two completely different perspectives. As I said, they view the world in terms of black and white. Therefore, in their minds, one of them is absolutely right, and one of them is absolutely wrong. There is no common ground.
Conclusion
If something doesn’t fit into the atheist’s or fundamentalist’s worldview, then it’s usually automatically discarded –this is the trouble with their extremes. The trouble isn’t necessarily the fact that one group believes nothing and the other believes everything, it’s the way they treat new information. Therefore, the religion/spirituality scale isn’t linear in a sense. It does start with believing in nothing, and it ends with believing in everything. However, in terms of viewing the world, it goes from closed minded (i.e. atheists) to closed minded (i.e. fundamentalists) with varying degrees of open mindedness in the middle. Therefore, it’s more like a bell curve than a linear scale.
There are many atheists who won’t even consider the possibility of a metaphysical reality. Open-minded scientists can conduct metaphysical-esque experiments, and get results that deserve attention, but some atheists won’t even consider the possibility. To them, it’s just not even an option.
The fundamentalists do the same thing. They can be shown scientific study after scientific study, but they’ll continue to discard the theory of evolution and the age of the universe. If it’s not in the bible, it didn’t happen.
The point here is that both sides have an irrational view of the world. If something’s not a possibility “just because” it’s not observable, measurable, or testable, then absolute faith is put into the idea that science can explain everything, which is irrational. If something’s not a possibility “just because” it’s not in the bible, then absolute faith is put into the idea that the information in the bible is literal (and completely factual), which is irrational.
If I had to choose which side is more irrational, of course, I’d have to choose the fundamentalists. I’ll take science over a literal interpretation of the bible. I’m not going after atheists because they don’t believe, I’m going after some of them because they refuse to seriously consider the possibility that science may not be able to explain everything.
Our opinions must be formed on a case-by-case basis. In reality, we don’t live in a black and white world. We live in a world that has millions of different shades of gray. While it may be easier to categorize things as either black or white, it’s certainly not practical. If there’s one thing we should learn from the world around us, it’s that there’s usually trouble with extremes.
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