Over the years I have met some extremely intelligent men. Barring rare exceptions, all of them had an equally silly side to them as well. In fact, often I could not help thinking that they had two brains with contrasting processing capabilities and that they effortlessly switched between the two depending upon the topic at hand. How such a smart man could stay so blissfully unaware of the foolishness of some of his ideas has always perplexed me. I have often wondered whether this switching is compulsive; or is it merely convenient.
I have known researchers who can read a dense, 12-page scientific paper in minutes and without as much as breaking a sweat. They immediately grasp its significance in the overall literature on the subject, the gap it addresses, its methodology, its results and their implications. They clearly have no shortage of reading comprehension skill. To the contrary, they are blessed with a surplus of it. And yet, if the reading material happens to be a religious text, it appears that they have suddenly jettisoned all that reading comprehension prowess, and for good measure all their common sense as well. At any rate, such is the nature of their observations (read criticisms) that ensue.
As an example, consider a typical objection to verses 67:3 and 67:4 of the Quran from such an individual. The verses challenge the readers to find a fault in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The objection goes something like this: ‘In this universe innocent children get sick and die, injustices go unpunished, evil often prevails and good folks suffer. And your God thinks it is perfect!’ He knows the importance of context of course, but that is when he is using Brain 1. With Brain 2 on, he misses (or decides to ignore) 67:2 (just one verse above) that states the purpose for which God has created life and death: namely, to test human beings. In this context (which is only one verse above), could any other arrangement be better than the universe as we know it? Despite the fact that death is explicitly mentioned in the verse, he would passionately insist that death and disease cannot be part of a perfect universe! There is no excuse for missing the context in this instance because there are only two verses of the chapter before the verses in question.
Brain 1 of these folks perfectly knows that a thing is perfect or not depending on its purpose. No engineer worth his salt would claim that he has designed a soda can so strong that nobody can tear it open (a perfect soda can, while it should withstand the internal pressure, is nevertheless supposed to tear– break– when its tab is pulled hard enough). Or a fuse so strong that it never blows no matter how overloaded the circuit (for that would be a faulty fuse). No engineer with Brain 1 operational, that is. All bets are off when Brain 2 is calling the shots, which happens much less frequently in worldly matters– God be praised.
Coming back to our intelligent reader (who has by now given free rein to his Brain 2), he first associates with the word ‘perfect’ all sorts of ideas that have nothing whatever to do with anything, and then declares that the world (with all its meanness, misery and misfortune) can be anything but perfect! Then he is apt to look at you as if he has made the most brilliant observation in the history of thought.
It has been said that the human brain is the most complex thing in the whole universe. Arguably, it is also the most useful. Having said that, possessing more than one brain can be a big problem. For best results, develop one and apply that to every problem regardless of its domain.
A familiar villain on such occasions turns out to be nothing other than logic. While logic is a great thing, it is rather easy to go overboard while exercising it. As long as Brain 1 is in control, men with any sort of exposure to literature know better than mistaking language for logic. So, when reading a literary work (or even a newspaper), a man would never take words like sunset and sun dawn literally (or scientifically). And he would be sensible enough to know that the word ‘all men’ (for example) could refer to, on one end of the spectrum the whole population of the world, to all individuals in a small group on the other (with everything in between). And that it is the context that tells which is it. So, he rarely makes a mistake. But no sooner does Brain 2 take over than the same man suddenly starts having great difficulty accepting that a book that is claimed to have originated with God is scientifically so rudimentary as not to know that the sun never sets, or rises for that matter. Or that ‘all men’ must mean all men in the world for all times to come unless the author explicitly excludes certain groups and epochs. The difficulty works the other way around too, for ‘you’ (second person singular) in the present tense could very well be referring to all the readers till eternity – an understanding suddenly lost when reading a religious text.
At this point, let me make it clear that this is in no way meant to be an attack on atheists and sceptics alone. Theists are every bit as guilty of taking verses out of context, going overboard with logic, and taking things literally when they are figurative. Since in everyday conversations, they usually do not display such failings, they can be accused equally justifiably of possessing two brains, and alternatively switching them on and off.
It is worth mentioning here that religious texts, like any other work of literature (and indeed like everyday conversations), use language literally as well as figuratively. They employ all the familiar literary devices: the metaphor, the simile, imagery… you name it. It is a mistake to take everything literally or everything figuratively (as many tend to do). The context makes it clear which is which, but only when Brain 1 is firing on all cylinders.
It has been said that the human brain is the most complex thing in the whole universe. Arguably, it is also the most useful. Having said that, possessing more than one brain can be a big problem. For best results, develop one and apply that to every problem regardless of its domain.
