Humility — Religion and Rationality
By: Hardev Singh Sra
Tags: Religion, Morality, Science, Humility, Rationality

Here in India, to be religious is to be humble (not necessarily of course) and to be humble seems hard to envision without having a belief in a deity or a god. The two seem inextricably tied. The submissive nature of worshiping a ‘higher’ entity lends itself naturally to a virtue as humility. Not surprisingly, denying the presence of such an entity, as atheists do, is to be arrogant. For many, to not believe in a god is to be on a high horse. This is, however, not true.

Humility can exist independent of any belief in a higher being. In fact, I would even argue that a humility resting on a more rational and scientific foundation can avoid many of the pitfalls that the pseudo-humility of the religious kind finds itself struggling with (I will come to that later). Now whether humility is actually a virtue or not is a whole another debate. Let’s for the moment assume that it is something worth striving for.

There are two very rational foundations for humility that do not require adherence to any doctrine.

The first one relates to the context and nature of your decisions.

Have you ever wondered how much of where you are is a product of decisions you consciously made and how much of the decisions that had been and were made for you? This is more nuanced than it sounds, with at least a few facets to consider. Did you choose the place, the family, the socioeconomic status you were born in? Did you have any control over the way you were raised or the way you were treated early at school? What intellectual faculties did you really have to parry the incessant onslaught of social conditioning?

Let’s take it a little further. When you made a certain decision and it turned out in your favor, was ‘you making the decision’ the only factor deciding the outcome? or were there other people, external circumstances well outside your control that were involved? Do you even have available, at any moment, data on all the factors that would decide an outcome, and even if you do, the intellectual faculties to comprehend how they would interact with each other?

If you honestly contemplate these questions, there are two things you should get to learn about your life. One, the start you got, your genetic makeup, your upbringing, the financial and social opportunities available to you, were not of your choosing, and these play a huge role in where you eventually end up in life, or at least what your ‘range’ is. Two, other than in the case of the simplest of decisions like picking up a glass of water, you really do not control the outcomes even one-tenth as much as you think you do. How could you not be humble knowing there is little to take credit for?

The second one relates to the vastness of the universe, and is, I believe, far easier to understand. The sheer magnitude of the universe should make you realize your insignificance. That you are no more than a speck on the huge canvas (not even that, speaking mathematically) should remove you from the center of existence. Neither are you even on the scale, nor even the center of anything (perhaps other than your own consciousness). As a physical entity, certain kilos of bone, blood and muscle, you and your actions are an insignificant part of the infinite reactions that universe is. To think otherwise is to live in delusion.

But… but, you may argue.. This seems like a perfect recipe for fatalism. It isn’t. It’s more of a honest admission of where we stand as individuals…. resizing, repositioning ourselves. For someone as minuscule as us, with no control over our birth circumstances, and hardly any over the outcomes of our decision, the only rational choice is actually to be humble. A worldview that takes these into account cannot be compatible with arrogance.

Now to the claim I made that religious promotes pseudo-humility. Humility in religious context is, for many, based on the fear of the outcome of not believing in a god, or on the guilt associated with not believing in an entity you have been told to never to question the existence, power or sanctity of. To name such ‘oppressive submissiveness’ humility is to, say the least, miss the mark. The involuntary nature of the religious indoctrination makes the religious brand of humility a closer relative of slavery than of humility.

The next time you feel yourself getting arrogant, and it bothers you, do not think of a god, look up at the vastness of the sky, or contemplate the journey of your life. You are sure to get a ‘healthy’ dose of humility.