Our Lives are Determined by Untruths

People tend to put a lot of faith in their intelligence. Just because we appear to be the most intelligent creature on the planet does not mean that our intelligence is worth a damn. We get by, but we don’t necessarily understand. Imagine a farm with pigs, dogs, ducks, goats and cows. The pigs may be the most intelligent creature on the farm, but that distinction does not mean a pig can create a spaceship or a suspension bridge. Similarly, just because we are smarter than other animals does not mean we have the capacity to accurately perceive and understand the world around us. Still, it seems the more intelligent someone is, the more they rely on their intellect to comprehend things that might be beyond human understanding. I consider this to be a form of arrogance.

The reality is that we cannot understand many things. Our inability to understand is inherent in the way we think. We are limited by our mental wiring. We fool ourselves into believing that we can understand ourselves, the world and our place in it. The basis of this shortcoming is in the nature of how we see ourselves. We cling too tightly to our worldview, our schema, our belief system—and our schemas are most often not right at all. Once we recognize that our identities have been shaped by misconceptions, we might be open to embracing more beneficial truths.