Rational, Irrational, Extra-rational, Or None Of The Above

The earth is flat.

For many millennia that was a perfectly rational statement – even if we reject it now. All you had to do was look and you'd see it for yourself. And anyone who claimed otherwise was irrational.

Religion is irrational.

That's certainly a rational statement. And anyone who claims otherwise is, himself, irrational. However that wasn't always the case.

The problem is that “irrational” has different meanings – denotations and connotations. It derives from the Latin, and means lacking reason, with “reason” having the sense of measurable “fact.” Nowadays its use is primarily pejorative, indicating that the irrational person or concept not only lacks the support of what is provable, but is inherently ridiculous. It's not only without reason – fact – but it is unreasonable. Religion is bunk.

That which is rational, on the other hand, is demonstrable, measurable, and provable. The earth is spherical. It was provable before the space age and demonstrable after. It isn't flat. That's a fact, and always has been. It's just that it took time for science to establish this reality and educate the rest of us.

Rationality is a human creation. And “facts” change with time. Something is true either because we can see it for ourselves, or someone we trust says it is. So if, several hundred years ago, you maintained that when flammable substances burned they became heavier because the source of flammability, phlogiston – which is lighter than air – was burned off, your claim was a fact. If you contend today, however, that for materials that have been heated there is no such thing as gravity, only phlogiston, your position would be viewed as irrational. Laughable. Even stupid. It is clearly contrary to demonstrable evidence, and in addition we have both physical and mathematical proof that gravity is real.

Facts, then, are what we believe at some point in time. And anyone with a contrary view is irrational. He may be right in the long run, but that is of no consequence. Those who are intelligent will consider his views to be irrational or, at best, unproven. If they, "those who are intelligent," respect the speaker, or choose to believe that the statements agree with their own views, they will state that the ideas, although not yet proven, are perfectly reasonable. If they don't, if they consider the ideas to be in conflict with their own beliefs,ⁱ they are prone to label them as mythology or superstition.

There was a time when the four elementsⁱⁱ and the humorsⁱⁱⁱ were established facts; when alchemy was a respected field; when the earth was the center of the Universe. Now we know better. Or, better, now we know more. And now we recognize that there is still a lot that we don't know. It's not unknowable, but we're not there yet. Some day it will be, for science is all about determining the facts of Life, the Universe and Everything. And, if it's real, whatever it is, sooner or later science will discover it.

However there are also things we don't know not because we haven't figured them out yet, but because they're nonsense. They're irrational. Religion is like that. If it doesn't agree with science, and we cannot imagine that it ever will, it is irrational. Of course we've changed our views of facts in the past, and we may do so again in the future, but that is only because science and wisdom can be trusted to help us work out the details. 

There are many things about which science and religion agree. Both will accept the idea that there are some things that are unknown and others that are unknowable. But while scientists will dismiss anything unknowable as irrational,^iv and while they'll accept anything that happens as fact – neither right or wrong, simply “what is” – those who believe in organized religion,^v whatever that religion is, accept the idea that there are moral absolutes and they have been established by an unknowable divinity. We are wrong when we blindly accept “reality” and ignore its implications. Man is not the measure of all things. There are some things we'll never understand because we're not intended to. It is only hubris that gives some the confidence that everything is knowable by Man.

Religious people make a mistake when they try to show that what they believe is compatible with scientific principles. That position gives credence to the view that for something to be true it must conform to those principles. It is a denial of the idea that there is more to our existence than what we consider “rational.” It is acquiescence to the belittling of religion by some scientists, and the blessing of the pejorative understanding of “irrational.”

Those who dismiss what they consider irrational because they cannot understand it, cannot understand the fact that what is provable is only a small part of reality, and it is inferior to that which cannot be known. It's their loss. Their world is flat.

Next episode: “Ice Breaker” – Oil and water don't mix.

i        Prejudices?

ii       Air, earth, fire, and water.

iii      Black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm.

iv       Silly and superstitious. The crutch of the weak.

v        As contrasted with those who believe in the infallibility of science.