Change of mind

I am a rationalist. This means that 95 percent of my beliefs are informed by evidence and logic. (The remaining five percent is informed by the conviction that women will sleep with me because of my naturally curly hair.) But, being a rationalist, my beliefs are subject to change whenever new data presents itself. And, over the past week, this has happened to me on several fronts. Let me confess: although I am a rationalist, I am also human. So I was at first reluctant to accept the conclusions which this new information forced upon me. Apart from my natural unwillingness to let go of long-held convictions, changing my beliefs also meant that I would have to admit that persons whom I have believed to be apostles of ignorance were, in fact, smarter than me. So let me swallow the bitter pill in this one column.

I shall start with Dr Stephan Gift. My disagreement with Dr Gift stems from his insistence that evolutionary theory is wrong. Even though I have on several occasions pointed out the factual and logical flaws in his argument, Dr Gift has stuck steadfastly to his position. The only thing I wasn’t able to decide was whether Gift was stupid or dishonest or both. But, with the recent discovery of fossils of a small human-like creature, the entire foundation of Darwinian theory has been shaken — indeed, though scientists are not yet admitting it, evolution is now shattered into irretrievable shards. The humanoid, discovered last year on the island of Sumatra, was first thought to be another species of human. But closer analysis showed that the creature was actually a normal human who had suffered a genetic fault which caused the small size. Other bones found on the site had the same mutation. What this means is that all those other human fossils — australopithecus, homo habilis, homo afarensis, neanderthals — were probably not different types of humans, but one species with individuals who had mutated in some way.

Even more significantly, analysis of the fossil’s DNA revealed it to have existed alongside modern homo sapiens. In other words, it is quite possible that human beings have only been on the planet for a few thousand years — that is, well within the timeframe posited by Dr Gift who, I now publicly acknowledge, is probably Trinidad’s most brilliant scientific mind. Inevitably, these new findings, after I had absorbed their earth-shattering implications, led me to look anew at the Bible. In this regard, I read over the newspaper columns of Pastor Terrence Browne, who has always asserted that the proof of the Bible’s efficacy lay in its prophecies. Were this the case, it would indeed be irrefutable evidence that the Bible is truly the work of a Supreme Intelligence.I had always rejected this premise, on the grounds that the wording of Biblical prophecy was too vague or metaphorical to contain testable predictions. But then I read The Bible Prophecies Decoded by Professor Ellis Antrobus, who holds degrees in Linguistics (PhD), Theology (PhD) and Physics (Msc).

I have great respect for intellectual probity, and Professor Antrobus makes a cogent case for the validity of Biblical prophecies. Apart from applying mathematical rigour to explaining Biblical passages, he argues convincingly for Jehovah’s motives in putting the prophecies in code. I cannot go into all the complexities here, but Professor Antrobus points out that such an approach was necessary in order to avoid the time paradoxes which, as physicists such as Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose have proven, are banned in a closed universe. (Professor Antrobus also makes a fascinating argument about the different moral scheme which would be determined in an open universe which, he suggests, is found in Hindu cosmogony.) So my opinion of Pastor Browne as a pseudo-intellectual religious troglodyte turns out to be erroneous. And, having started down this rocky path, I was therefore not too shaken to discover that I now had to accept columnist Marion O’Callaghan’s Catholic premise of “faith and reason.”

I had long pigeon-holed O’Callaghan as a slippery customer, not above twisting the truth to serve her religious and racial agendas. This was not only because I found her reasoning suspect, but also because she had on several occasions criticised me without quoting me directly, even going to the length of putting words in my mouth. This was bad enough but, when I pointed out this, she did not even have the Christian grace to correct her distortions, let alone apologise to me. But I realise now that, if I am truly committed to understanding reality, I must let go of my resentment and embrace what Ms O’Callaghan has to offer. For, if the universe is indeed part material and part spiritual, then a full understanding is impossible without both reason and faith. It is this simple truth which O’Callaghan has been voicing, and which I, to my detriment, had refused to hear.

It is easy to write this now — well, actually it isn’t — but the change in my world view came only after many sleepless nights. In fact, I was not able to overcome my biases without psychological help. This was no easy task either, since I have long viewed most of Trinidad’s professional psychologists with utter disdain. Foremost among those whom I see as having bogus theories and views is Anna Maria Mora: and it was for this reason that I decided to go to her for help. Well, not only did Dr Mora help me attain a deeper understanding of myself and my place in the world, but she forced me to acknowledge another error I had made. This is in respect to Professor Selwyn Cudjoe, whom I have regularly characterised as a racial demagogue with a constipated smile. But, after Dr Mora psychoanalysed me using Freud’s well-established theories, she showed me that Professor Cudjoe was simply trying to move our society forward, and that his smile was really very attractive. And, to all my regular readers, who are no doubt aghast at all these revelations, what can I say? Well, only this: April Fool!

E-mail: kbaldeosingh@hotmail.com
Website: www.caribscape.com/baldeosingh