Millions of People Can’t be Wrong

When confronted with the issue of the existence of God, many people call upon the masses for support. “So many people can’t be so wrong about so much”, they say. becoming a non-believer would be like calling ones ancestors and millions of his fellow believers stupid. They can’t all be wrong, can they?

In some cases it could be considered a great rule of thumb to check ones self against a crowd. We do so every day, as we weigh our actions against what our friends find acceptable. Whenever we contemplate our individual morality, the social circle can be a great measure. It is not illegal to be impolite to a co-worker, but we try not to be. We do so because it is not socially acceptable. And that’s fine.

In other cases, however, the majorities opinion is less valuable. Whenever an issue involves expert knowledge, the opinion of those without such knowledge would be a waste of time. We should definitely not hold a vote on whether or not ethylene glycol should be added to our food. The vast majority of people have no idea what ethylene glycol is and so would be useless in the decision (it’s antifreeze by the way).

This line of reasoning is true in the religious debate as well. when it comes to the moral issues, advanced societies tend to pick and choose the parts of their religion which is agreeable within that society. And so, to a large degree, most cultures morality is exceedingly similar. Customs may differ, but the basic morality of different cultures is often the same.

When it comes to the origin of the universe and the evolution of life, however, common wisdom suddenly diverges. Suddenly the numbers are against the religious. No matter what religion one subscribes to, most of the people of the world think he is fundamentally wrong. When the questions are not ones of morality and human action but cosmology, biology and geology, the religions become heavily divided. Can we really invoke common wisdom to defend issues that are beyond common knowledge?

What about our ancestors? Were they all wrong?

We know they were wrong about some things. Today we know the world is not flat. That it rotates around the sun. That germs exist. We can also point to moral divergences over the years. Today we consider our ancestors wrong on moral issues such as slave owning, or the rights of woman in society. Most of us think they were morally wrong in their treatment of Africans or homosexuals.

Is it really so hard to believe they were wrong about God as well?