Mike Dryden
December 3, 2008
Theology III
History of Doubt
"The great figures I love the most are ones who continue constantly to question. They may decide for sure that they don't believe in God, but they don't decide for sure that they really know what the universe is all about. they decide for sure that questioning's for them."
--Ms. Jennifer Michael Hecht
Doubt has a rich history that filled with influential figures, groundbreaking ideas, and plenty of turmoil. Many of us don't think that they ancient world had doubt, when in fact the philosophies of doubt that we now know today began in ancient Greece. And three men led the way: Diogenes, Socrates, and Epicurus.
Diogenes, Socrates, Epicurus
DIOGENES
"My view is that that which has intelligence is what men call air, and that all things have their course steered by it and that it has power over all things. For this very thing I hold to be a God and to reach everywhere and to dispose everything and to be in everything. And there is not anything which does not partake in it. Yet no single thing partakes in it just in the same way as another. But there are many modes both of air and of intelligence, for it undergoes many transformations. Warmer and colder, drier and moister, more stable and in swifter motion, and it has many other differentiations in it and an infinite number of colors and savors."
Diogenes was the founder of the philosophy that we now call cynicism. The word itself means "dog", and he believed that we should live our lives as dogs live theirs - carefree, just going with the flow of the universe and not fighting nature. The only things expected/cherished as human beings are happiness, true friendship, and loyalty. He also believed that the essence of the universe was air, as illustrated by the above quote. Air controlled all living things and set our lives' courses.
SOCRATES
Socrates was the founder of skepticism, another philosophy of doubt. It centered around the idea that we don't know anything, and that as human beings, our minds are not built for knowledge or gathering the truth; only for the basic needs of existence (nourishment, reproduction, etc.).We know the world by questions of what we don't know. While this philosophy started as a denial of knowledge it eventually became a study of probabilities of accuracy of all philosophies, which all seem to be correct/have good points.
EPICURUS
Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he has grown old, for no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come or that it is passed and gone is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young ought to seek wisdom. The former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been. And the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness since, if that be present, we have everything, and if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it."
--Epicurus
Epicurus' main teaching was that fear ruins the lives of human beings; it prevents us from achieving the highest levels of humanity, keeps us in ignorance and violence. According to him, there are three types of fears: fear of pain, fear of the gods, and fear of death. He said that the greatest fear we face in our life is the fear of death, and that we need to accept it. It is final and completely natural, so there is nothing we should mourn when someone dies. Also, it makes our life while we are alive sweeter; we live more in moment and live our lives more fully when we know there will come a day when we will no longer be here.
Doubt and Religion
Doubt is a theme in Islamic cultures and religions; it is almost at the point of being embraced. We see this in the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes. In Job, Job is a farmer who experiences all sorts of misfortune and still stays loyal to God in the face of the devil's temptations to make it end. It is a story that proclaims the injustice of the world, but this theme of the story has been glossed over by religion over the years, which instead chooses to focus on Job's loyalty rather than the fact that Job suffered all varieties of misfortunes, including losing his family, for seemingly no good reason. Ecclesiastes is just a shrug against injustice in the world; "All is futile...What real value is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the sun?...There is nothing new beneath the sun."
The Path of Doubt Through History
The map below follows the path of doubt through Europe/Africa. It starts at the Green marker in ancient Greece, and ends with the Red marker in Italy. Click on the markers to receive information about the progress of doubt/philosophy at each of the points.
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