I cannot say that I am an atheist due to ignorance, and that is why I have the same yardstick for believers and unbelievers along with their deeds. The share of good people in both groups is large, as is that of bad people. This calls into question the assumption that the comeback of religion in society will have a major impact on the growth of spirituality. Once, before perestroika began, participants in a public discussion were asked to prove that there is no God, with the winner being a clergyman for the simple and obvious reason: nobody knows the shortcomings of religion as well as the clergy.
Still, the question of why people believe has always troubled me. The same is true of the so-called crowd phenomenon, which leads people to believe not only in good but also in evil ideals. Without questioning their integrity, I was surprised to learn that, having sworn their allegiance to the Communist Party, many educated individuals later switched their faith and began to go to church. Trying to figure out whether it was when they did no thinking, whether at the point of studying materialist philosophy, or when, already mature, they began to believe in God, I came to the conclusion that Reason has nothing to do with it. They were not thinking, they were reacting to their own inborn need to have faith. Not surprisingly, contemporary philosophy defines Communist doctrine as a kind of religion with all the regular features of the latter. Regardless of the object of Faith, the end result is the same: thou shalt not kill, though shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, etc. In other words, the need to have faith is equal to the need to have something to stimulate us toward self-abnegation and altruism. True, far from everyone is ready to become an altruist just like that.
Many philosophers believe that Faith has been typical of man since his origins and has a pre-intellectual nature. Prior to being distinguished from Nature by Reason, a man was just one of its biological species. Although animal psychology does not study humans as a separate species, it reveals altruistic behavioral patterns existing in other species and manifesting themselves in the instinctive ability of an individual to sacrifice himself for the sake of his species’ survival. It turns out that while in the world of humans such a feat is an exception, in nature it is a routine occurrence. Take the case of a wandering cluster of ants driven by their collective reason. On coming to a rapid brine, there is a short confusion, followed by the ants regrouping their column and starting to build a bridge. Adult ants keep clutching to each other until the live bridge made of ants is ready, with many whose clutch was loose washed away. Then young ants cross the brine by this bridge to the other bank, with the water swallowing up the remnants of the bridge. But the march of ants goes on.
One might be offended, but one should consider the question whether all Great Projects might simply exploit this instinctive behavioral pattern implanted in us by Mother Nature. In fact, instinct and all religions have the same objective that is written on any flag waved above the crowd: Salvation. Given our intellect, religions offer only personal salvation, but to many of us. Apparently, we must agree here with Voltaire who said that, if there were no God, he would have to be invented. “It’s all true but not quite,” to use the words of servant Shelmenko from the popular play by Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. As it is, none of the ants will ever become a cynic and conformist, because it would never occur to any ant to consider whether it is worthwhile to sacrifice a part of their species and, if concluding not, to swap its Great Project for a better one.
Cynicism and conformity is the inevitable price one has to pay for breaking one’s faith. When many members of society fall victim to them, we speak of a crisis of spirituality. Meanwhile, in nature the refusal by individuals to sacrifice themselves endangers the existence of the species. The biological roots of cynicism and conformity lie in the instinctive desire to save oneself. If at the level of conscience Faith stimulates man to perfect himself in terms of societal ideals, cynicism arrests any possible impact on his mind. Conformity, on the other hand, is a kind of an adaptation mechanism enabling one to go with the flow without any faith or questions like in a childish believe-it-or-not game, to go on believing as long as it is safe and advantageous.
However, while in the realm of nature species definitely outweigh individuals, intelligent human society gives man many more privileges, including the right to believe. The need to have Faith gives rise to Grand Projects. And here suddenly it turns out that all the Projects have the same flaw: when they clash with each other, the value of human life plummets. After all, this could well be the Project’s basic task: by outwitting human reason and subduing human cynicism to make a part of human species sacrifice themselves for the sake of survival of the whole species. At the same time, the need for Faith might well be Nature’s cunning to protect itself from our underdeveloped Reason and to retain control over the species. Even the mechanism of cheating is biological: Pleasure derived by a man from implementing his instinctive behavioral patterns like feeding, reproduction, and altruism. Those who have ever done anything not for oneself but for others and in the name of some idea are familiar with this feeling. In such moments one feels in perfect agreement with oneself, and the sense of life presents itself as the Basic Instinct. This is why societies where human life is openly subordinated to serving some Idea instead of serving itself are much less susceptible to emotional depression, and even the most nightmarish historical periods are recalled with nostalgia. The past was so good, but where is all that blood on my hands from, and why is there the seal of a criminal against humanity branded on me?
Finally, when History reveals itself as a formula of Faith plus Conformity is equal to Cynicism minus a certain number of human lives , we want to ask the question of where Reason is and what its role in this whole saga is.
At present, in order to survive, some part of our species will sacrifice another part, saying it is less developed and living in an illiberal society. However, the latter tend to have their own opinion on the issue. Apparently, not only Ukraine finds itself on the threshold of a new Grandiose Project, with the present one rapidly falling apart.
The developmental logic of human Reason shows that its main objective is to move as many of the instincts as possible into the realm of Conscience. The previous revolution in our conscience was Sexual. According to philosophers, the next one will be Psychological, with man opening for himself the Sense of Life. In all probability, this will happen when our Reason matures enough to overcome the natural grip the instincts of Faith have on us, and, having discarded cynicism, we will then be able to enjoy Altruism in full.
To those who are ready to assume responsibility for proposing a national idea to our society I wish to prove their best by offering a Project that will sit well with all humanity. If their Project succeeds, no one need worry about the nation’s prestige, spirit, and unity.
