The Greek society was well-known for its love and development in philosophy. The thinkers and philosophers in that society almost discussed all the basic questions of philosophy and strived to provide their answers according to their own thinking. One of their basic qualities that made them earn fame and familiarity with knowledge and wisdom was undoubtedly the capacity to question and search.
Unfortunately, our society tends to lack that capacity. Our people do not have the capacity to question and search and mostly rely on their strong and mostly blind beliefs. They believe that their every thought is the ultimate truth. In a modern and sensible society if a person adopts such an approach, he will be expelled for the society. We have to, at least, accept this fact that there were some distinctions in the Greek society and now in modern Europe that have made them rule over the world both intellectually and materially. However, we are not able to realize this fact as true intellectualism is a miracle that we have never experienced. If it is a color, we are blind by birth. If it is a voice, we have always been deaf. If it is something to be expressed, we are totally dumb and if it is a hidden treasure, we do not have the capacity to search for it. We have only emotions, which we have guarded as our wealth and consider it our duty to unleash them every now and then.
Sometimes, these emotions erupt in the form of religious extremism and sometimes in the form of literary prejudice. If we see closely, most of our thinkers and writers have to write only about so-called literature and religious topics. In our intellectuals we do not find someone other than religious scholars, artists and critics. Greek society that was more than 2,000 years old had intellectuals and thinkers who would touch different topics and questions, while the modern societies of the world have touched almost every topic in the world and are now searching the space and other planets.
Our society, on the other hand, stands at a point where its intelligentsia have given up the habit of research and study in the modern sciences and studies. It is very difficult to find a group or institution of such intellectuals in our society who discover the realities of life and the universe objectively and scientifically. Though there are certain individuals who have such consideration but their number is really very small and they do not have enough support and cooperation to institutionalize their efforts.
Our people, without striving to find the truth, claim to know it. Their abstract thoughts and in certain cases even rough ideas are considered as ultimate truth by them. It is important to understand that those who claim to have found the truth, have the tendency to stick to it and keep on insisting upon it. They, thus, give up seeking for it and fall into the imagination that the ultimate reality has been discovered and there is no need of further exploration.
The matter of fact is that the human beings understand the world through their knowledge and human knowledge is not perfect and complete enough to understand the entire universe and different phenomena in it. Thus what they understand at a particular time may be true as per their knowledge at that time but as they further advance in their knowledge and understanding of the universe the situation may change. Their previous truth may seem insufficient and may require further elaboration or the facts may point towards a truth that is totally against the accepted truth and may, thus, reject it completely.
Those who believe that they know the ultimate truth are dangerous as well. They are dangerous in a sense that they consider others as not knowing the actual truths. Then, they become even more dangerous when they want to spread their perceived truths to others and even coerce them. They, sometimes, become violent and cannot tolerate that others should have opinion other than what they know; all because they know the ultimate truth.
Different extremist movements in the world, which have even killed thousands of people without any crime, have basically originated from the thinking that they are right and true, while the rest are wrong and must be amended. Taliban, for instance, consider their way of thinking and their beliefs as true and believe that all others are infidel. Thus it is their moral and the most sacred duty to make others follow the truth as well.
Resultantly, as Andre Gide has said we have to doubt those who find truth. We don’t have to believe them but challenge them. Reconsider their conclusions and must strive to keep on searching for truer.
A scientific way of thinking is never to consider something as a complete truth or complete false; rather it suggests, as Henry Augustus Rowland had said, “There is no such thing as absolute truth and absolute falsehood. The scientific mind should never recognize the perfect truth or the perfect falsehood of any supposed theory or observation. It should carefully weigh the chances of truth and error and grade each in its proper position along the line joining absolute truth and absolute error.”