No Statement Can Bear Its Own Truth

In each sector of our society, criticizing the basis for someone's religious beliefs has become taboo. The scrutiny of religious beliefs is sometimes encouraged in certain contexts, however, a line is drawn and is drawn incredibly thick. Religious beliefs have reached safe keeping from general inquiry and evidence that reveals incongruities and erroneous claims that, for example, pertain to the origins of life and the nature of the universe. The very basis for belief in religious statements raises suspicion. If the rationale applied to belief in religious claims were applied to any other beliefs about the world they would, at best, raise frequent skepticism. When questioning the validity of religious beliefs, the core responses are usually as follows, as adapted from Sigmund Freud's 1927 work, The Future of An Illusion (pg. 273).

1. They must be believed because our ancestors believed them.
2. We possess proofs which have been handed down from antiquity.
3. It is prohibited to raise questions of their authenticity, regardless of evidence and the progress of rational thought.

If we applied these same tactics to a belief in scientific propositions, such as Evolution, much skepticism and dispute would be raised. Society well knows why the premise of most religious doctrines is to become void of doubt: they are full of uncertainty.

"If all the arguments that are put forward for the authenticity of religious doctrines originate in the past, it is natural to look round and see whether the present, better able to judge in these matters, cannot also furnish such evidence. The whole of the religious system would become infinitely more credible if one could succeed...in removing the element of doubt from a single part of it" (pg. 274).

Although the religious say that it is because of this doubt that faith is such an important component of religious beliefs--they are not able to disprove the idea that their pious convictions more probably, may be the products of their own mental activity.