“Always question everything; certainty is the enemy of spiritual growth.”
—Maxim 1
It’s also rather a foundational thought for my
own spiritual approach. The first part is actually a common saying
among skeptics (they always seem to use that Americanised spelling
online, even many of the Brits, and I’ll use that spelling
specifically for this usage), by which I do not mean people who are
generally slow to believe things. I mean the movement of actively
non-religious, often science-focussed (and positivist), and sometimes
downright anti-religious people that has grown largely online. The
patron saints of the movement seem to be Dawkins and Popper, though
there is also a current among skeptics that suggests that Dawkins
might be a bit of a jerk and that Popperian science is both not as
restrictive as some think, and not the only way to think about
science. It is the approach and attitude that gave rise to
Pastafarianism (also known as The
Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster) and various other
satirical approaches to (or uses of) religion, and might be seen as a
new generation’s version of the secular humanist movement. Indeed,
some people involved in the skeptical community also get involved in
secular humanism. “Always question everything” might reflect a
sceptical view generally, though I’ve also heard it from conspiracy
theorists – by which they mean to question the official narrative
of events – and various sorts of counter-cultural and
off-mainstream viewpoints.
