we have in the enlightenment, the Philosophes, who argued that
man was ruled by myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions…
these myths and habits and prejudices were from to such authorities as
Aristotle and Plato and the Bible and the church and the Pope…
Would these myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that
we have received from these authorities, stand up to a rigorous inspection?
if we examined these myth and habits and prejudices in the light on modern
science, would they pass the test of still being authentic truths, as
told to us by authorities? in other words, would we still believe in god
if we actually examined god in terms of modern thought? the answer is
clearly no…
so we then have Hume who comes along and tell us why
we cannot believe in the old myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions… the enlightenment was working toward freeing
people from the old myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions like
believe in god and the authority of the pope… but Hume told us,
gave us method to refute such things… his thought was
that we, by means of habit and connection, have connected
certain idea’s together, but those idea’s are nothing more then
habit of thought… in the sky, we see and hear lighting, after
some time, we have learned to connect this lighting with
some idea of god…but there is no connection between lighting
and god, the connection only exists from our habit of connecting
god with the lighting…and then the authorities continued this
myth and habit to every generation as it came along…
so Hume offers us a method to continue the quest of the Philosophes,
by undercutting the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that exists and is perpetuated by the authorities to maintain their power
and hold over us…
so the myth that America is the greatest country on earth is perpetuated
by those who have the most to gain by that myth and habit, people
in the political world who use such myths and habits to get you
to vote for them…and also to maintain their power over you…
so Hume and the Philosophes worked together in their quest to
rid the human race of those myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions that prevent you from being able to live free…
remove those myths and habits and prejudices and you will be free
and be able to become who you are… and now we reach our modern
quest to become who we are and find out our possibilities…
if we are dominated by myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions,
how can we be free to freely make choices about who we are and what we
can become?
if we allow the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions to
determine who we are and what is possible, then we allow the past,
the long dead past to decide who we are and what is possible for us…
if we allow those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions to
limit our choices into who we are and what is possible for us, then
we are no longer free agents, freely deciding who we are…
we are determined by those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
in other words, if we hold to the belief in god because we haven’t
freed ourselves of our childhood teaching and myths and habits
and prejudices and superstitions… we are determined… we are no longer
free to act if we allow myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions to make our choices for us…
the argument is, how can you be free if you have your actions determined
for you by the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions in your life?
if you were taught that there is a god in childhood and you never challenged
that idea, then you are dominated, determined by an idea, you learned as a child…
that is the value of a certain saying… It is not enough to have the
courage of our convictions, but we must have the courage for an attack upon
our convictions…
the value is to be free, to make your choices, not because you still hold
your myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions from childhood…
that isn’t freedom, that is being determined, no, to be free, you must
have the courage for an attack upon your convictions…you must become
free of the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of childhood…
you must grow up and create your own values, your own beliefs,
instead of holding myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that have lingered on for over a millennium…that have lingered on
without any thought or understanding as to what they actually mean…
what they mean to you and what they mean to society at large…
I have stated more then once, that the belief in god is the single
most destructive thought human beings have ever had…
this thought has created the greatest amount of disunity ever
sown and the caused the greatest number of deaths in human history…
Kropotkin