SEEKING CLARITY

The reading of good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Renee Descartes (French philosopher, scientist 1596-1650)

Take a deep breath, sit in a quiet corner during the shrillness of our era, and enjoy the calming voice of this book. Everyone, no matter what, their life experience will be enriched, and find common ground and common goals. This book enriches life - and reinforces the values of truth, science, faith, and trust.

The title of this book is THE ROAD to WISDOM on Truth, Science, Faith, And Trust. Dr. Francis S. Collins is the author, a physician, and a geneticist. He has served as the Director of the National Institutes of Health under three presidents, Obama, Trump, and Biden. Now we have the opportunity to learn more about his thoughts…and how to enrich our lives.

Here are some excerpts: This is a book about sources of wisdom, something that I fear many of us have lost sight of. I was inspired to write it after spending many years in the public eye and seeing how badly divisiveness and politics have warped our thinking – including our ability to discern truth, our understanding of science, and our anchor in the fundamentals of faith. What does wisdom mean? It is not the same as knowledge, though it depends on it. Wisdom can lead to sober judgment on how to discern truth. It includes experience, common sense, and insight.

For example, the COVID crisis awakened me from my usual optimistic view of society to realize how much we have lost track of the sources of wisdom-how we have let politics on both right and left become a touchstone. This time the cultural wars were killing people, thousands of them in the US alone and more around the world.

Traditional institutions that have drawn us together around noble causes, such as churches, mosques, or synagogues have been diminishing in their influence or have been taken over by political messages. Guardrails that prevented the gradual deterioration of our civil society are no longer as secure as they once were. The general inadequacy of our educational system to teach civics and critical thinking has faltered. The focus of many institutions of higher learning is on “everything goes” at the expense of developing character. Two other influences are particularly critical in catalyzing our current hostilities. First is how most individuals get information – social media - with no real control over whether the content is accurate. The second influence that has been particularly harmful to our society is politics. Let’s be clear, culture generally drives politics, not the other way around. Where politics should be a moderator of extremism, it is now an amplifier. But wait – has the entire nation moved away from truth, science, faith, and trust?

This book aims to help. It is a guide to those four bedrock sources of wisdom our civilization has depended on for centuries: truth, science, faith, and trust. People are exhausted by the pernicious distortion of wisdom, which implies that truth is the purview of just one tribe, that science is a mask for politics, faith is nothing more than the brand name of a team and that trust is only reliable if channeled through unquestioning group loyalty. If all these things were true, then the contentious culture war that is breaking down our society would be what we deserve …but they are not true, and we are better than this. This shines a light on a more hopeful path. Deep down nearly all of us agree with the promise that truth matters, and should strive to honor it. Discussing truth, there are six categories of untruth - they are ignorance, falsehood, a lie, delusion, bullshit, and then propaganda. These are the ways to distort the truth.

Now considering science and the distrust of science in our highly technological society is puzzling since we depend upon scientific advances every day. Seven billion people on the planet are connected 24/7 through cell phones. Science and ethical boundaries whether we should believe them and trust them, we must also consider the ethical limits of science.

Now to faith…the Roman Empire is gone. As distressing as the current times might seem, this is NOT the apocalypse. People of faith may hold the best keys to help return us to love and trust. But not if they abandon those principles of trust in faith and adopt the angry methods of the mob. Right now you might be asking yourself “ Does this chapter on Faith belong in a book on truth, science, trust, and wisdom.?” Let me answer in the a??irmative, recognizing that readers are diverse in their views. There might be information here that can help to see past the current political contamination of faith traditions, leading to caricatures that make faith seem hypocritical and mean-spirited. Faith must work hand in hand with truth, science, and trust.

Trust holds relationships together and is critical for society to work together. But trust is in short supply at this moment. This somber statement bears out: ‘Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.’ The word ‘institution’ currently inspires negative responses for a lot of us. It raises the specter of a bunch of people holed up in bricks and mortar enterprise, that is rigid, bureaucratic, self-absorbed, and wasteful. An institution is a group of people working toward a common purpose, examples include companies, banks, universities, and non-profit organizations and include professions like science, medicine, and journalism. An institution has rules and standards that enhance the ability of society to make progress.

The wise thoughts in this special book include the vaccine misinformation and the insights of Dr. Collins through DNA we have learned that all humans are part of ONE family, derived from one common Black ancestor about sixty thousand years ago. There is no biological justification for racism or diminishing one race over another. Truth, science, faith, trust are not just sources of relief from a painful period in our country’s life. They hold out a promise for a better life.

The government you elect is the government you deserve. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. Thomas Jefferson ( 3rd President 1743-1826)