The modern world is awash in verified facts, verified theories and verified laws based on careful analysis and application of those facts, theories and laws. However, many people willfully choose not to believe those proven ideas and place their faith in untestable ideas and often in ideas which are proven to be based on false facts. If the basic facts people place their faith in are wrong, there is little hope that the behavior based on those erroneous facts can be productive and beneficial to them or to the society at large.
When every effort is made to explain the testable and verifiable facts to people in a clear and re-testable way, what should a fair minded person do, if they are rejected? If the erroneous ideas have no impact on the holder of the false ideas or other people then no harm is done by leaving them to wallow in their false fantasy. The only harm is in the time wasted by the holder of the false beliefs. However, most false beliefs do have a deleterious effect on the holder and upon people around them, but even this might be tolerated by a fair minded person if these other injured people are made aware of the errors that are coming their way, and are given an opportunity to fend off the harm.
Sometimes, a person with a false belief promulgates their belief and proselytizes others to join in their belief and champion the irrational cause. What should a fair minded person do then? If these false beliefs can be contested in an open debate where true facts can be presented alongside of false ones, then the true facts should win the arguments. There is a real problem, however, which occurs when the proselytizers present their side to a typical audience who wants to believe the false ideas because it makes them feel better. When an argument is based not on testable facts but upon hoped for ideals it becomes difficult for reason to be considered valid, because reason seems cold and heartless and hope is warm and sensitive and feels so much better. Why face ugly facts when one can look at the bright side of things and hope for the best outcome?
Unfortunately, a real problem arises in a democracy, because many people, perhaps most, will want to move in the most positive sounding direction regardless of how it flies in the face of the reasonable facts. If these ill informed, hope driven people are the majority then the whole community will be guided by irrational hope and their collective actions will be no better than a riotous mob’s. What is a fair minded person to do when they find themselves being driven into a chaos of obvious disaster? What are we to do when nearly all of our present population of seven billion people are eagerly heading into the inevitable over-population boom and its equally inevitable population bust? I don’t know! The only reasonable thing is to prepare for the after effects of the coming disaster and prepare for a resurgence of humanity. When obvious things have passed over it may be possible to rebuild humanity on a more permanent foundation of a World Constitution with as its goal the long term survival of the human species rather than the short term maximization of personal gain. Give the people of the future the tools they need to form an equitable sustainable society. That would include a World Constitution and the seeds to replant the world.
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