Faith, Hope and Insanity

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” How often have you heard that lately? This tired meme has taken the first quarter of the 21st century by storm. It’s one of those things that seem to make sense, or even appear ‘wise’, at first glance. But does it stand up to analysis?

What do call it when we do the same thing over and over again, expecting the same result each time? We call that Science! The Scientific Method supposes that, controlling all variables, identical input will reliably result in identical output. If this were not so, we could never build a bridge or a skyscraper. Only in the works of J. K. Rowling do fully formed edifices magically appear.

So far so good, right? Wrong! Look what we’ve done: we have split the universe of possible universes into two different, exclusive, but all-encompassing logoi (ordering schemes): one side we call science, one side we call insanity. Do I have to spell out the corollaries?  Unless you put your faith in science, you are insane! This is a logical chain that only Dr. Fucci could love.

And what of the person who thoughtfully responds, “I know I’m not insane and I don’t believe in magic, but I also knows that science has it limitations?” That person does not exist in your metaverse. The flaw, of course, is in assuming that everything in universe (U) must be ‘Either A or B’. ‘Both A and B’ and ‘Neither A nor B’ are not allowed.

A World (W) can be dissected by a single cut (A/B) at any angle. A cut is ‘meaningful’ if and only if it is possible to define the two resulting subregions, A and B, so that every point on W is either in A or in B and no point in W is in both A and B.

Many points in W, perhaps most points, appear neither scientific (A) nor insane (B). On the other hand, many on W, especially these days, appear to qualify both as science and as insanity…not an easy fete I’ll grant you. Therefore the cut X that ostensibly dissected W into science and insanity is not ‘meaningful’: it fails to deliver its promised result. The set of all U that can satisfy the terms of this cut is the null set.

Swimming in the sea called Language can be hazardous to the intellect. It amounts to an encyclopedia (infinite?) of  propositions, each suggesting that a particular ‘cut’ can be meaningful. 

Of course, the real purpose of our ‘cut above’ is the promotion of pseudo-science at the expense of all else. Validity is an afterthought at best. Every P is Propaganda before it is even a fully formed Proposition.  

It is certainly possible to be both scientific and insane (no wisecracks, please); it is also possible to be neither. 

Take the first two Theological Virtues, for example: Faith and Hope. Both can be defined as doing the same things (liturgy, morality) over and over again in the confident expectation of a ‘different result’: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  

Faith, hope and love are three faces of a single coin. Faith is hope’s foundation, hope’s the first fruits of faith. Love ‘proceeds from Faith and Hope’. Love is both the foundation and the product of ‘Faith X  Hope’. 

Faith allows us to see ‘my neighbor as myself’ and Hope empowers us to seek the collective Summum Bonum in solidarity with that neighbor. Faith can only be faith in someone else, someone who is worthy of love. Hope can only be hope for someone, someone worthy of love.

Keep the conversation going.

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