A village chieftain was given to narrating over embellished tales of his hunting exploits. Owing to his social standing, none of the poor villagers dared being rude to him. But from the meaningful and amused glances that they exchanged, he knew that his tales were making him a laughingstock in his absence. Still, he could not help magnifying his adventures. To prevent further damage, he tasked his able secretary to cough discreetly whenever he said something that defied belief.
The very next morning, he decided to narrate, for the benefit of posterity, the details of a landmark hunt of yore. He began by telling his audience how the inhabitants of a distant village had sent for him to rid them of the menace of a 90-foot crocodile that had been terrorizing an entire region. Alarmed by the figure, the secretary coughed tactfully. The hunter took the cue and added that upon reaching the site, he was informed by eyewitnesses to the various incidents that the crocodile was only 80 feet long. The secretary coughed again, prompting the hunter to further ‘correct’ the narrative by saying that when he came face to face with the crocodile, it appeared to be only 70 feet long. Long story short –a sensational duel between the hunter and the reptile and three coughs from the conscientious secretary later –the crocodile had been killed and its length (as actually measured) had amounted to 40 feet. When the secretary coughed again, the hunter told him: ‘Cough as much as you like. The crocodile stands dead and measured, and there is nothing anybody can do about it now.’
Though they are probably the most notorious, hunters are hardly the only ones guilty of this sort of thing. Blowing things out of proportion is a common human weakness that few can completely overcome. We have all neutralized equivalents of crocodilian threats in our various domains; and more often than not, our accounts (sometimes even our memories) of such feats are infinitely more dramatic and heroic than the actual incidents. As a rule, most of the folks remain blissfully unaware of the magnitude of sheer silliness that leaves their mouths. (Our hunter friend above is an exception that proves this rule.)
Considering the egoistic element inherent in human nature, exaggeration of one’s own merits and achievements should come as a surprise to anybody. The same goes for overplaying the accomplishments of one’s flesh and blood, ancestors and offspring. But many human beings go one step farther: they are apt to glorify beyond all reason the merits of individuals that they admire. What is curious about this is that the magnification is done after the fact, so to speak. That is, it is not because of those merits that they adopt their heroes in the first place (which would be the case if they happened to be rational animals). Instead, once (for whatever reasons) they develop a liking for somebody, they keep glorifying him until all boundaries of reasonability and credibility are crossed. It is a rare breed indeed that notices while overstepping those limits. The instinct of hero worship (which, to a degree, is to be expected in human beings) therefore ends up getting the better of the good judgment of a very large percentage of humankind.
Silliness must not be allowed even in the supposedly trivial and harmless beliefs. Views rooted in sloppy thinking may appear way too trivial to matter, but they tend to grow into significant obstacles in the way of a sensible world view. Since all things are interconnected because of the way one thinks, no belief is harmless. Foolishness happens to be extremely infectious in that once admitted in one domain of the belief system, it is only a matter of time before it crosses over to all the others.
Nowhere is this exaggerating urge more noticeable than in overenthusiastic albeit well-meaning religious folks. Consider these statements –you would have heard these (or very similar) claims: ‘Imam X collected and memorized 600,000 narrations;’ or ‘Imam Y committed to memory all of the 500-odd books in his collection from cover-to-cover’; or ‘Maulana Z offered with Isha’s ablution the Fajr prayer for 40 years without interruption.’ That men want their heroes to be better than them makes a great deal of sense. But then they start embellishing, quite unnecessarily so, the very real merits of their heroes until the whole thing becomes ridiculous and finally outright absurd.
While religious folks are by no means the only ones prone to this sort of thing, exaggeration in religious matters arguably has more serious consequences than in any other domain. Branching and sub-branching of religions into sects and cults almost always has roots in the elevation of great and righteous men to unwarranted pedestals (of course, no fault whatsoever of those individuals). Enthusiasm for a cause never was and never can be a replacement for sincerity and good sense.
That having been said, silliness must not be allowed even in the supposedly trivial and harmless beliefs. Views rooted in sloppy thinking may appear way too trivial to matter, but they tend to grow into significant obstacles in the way of a sensible world view. Since all things are interconnected because of the way one thinks, no belief is harmless. Foolishness happens to be extremely infectious in that once admitted in one domain of the belief system, it is only a matter of time before it crosses over to all the others.
