The Inevitability of Dogma

The human mind requires certitude. I am certain about where I came from (my Mom and Dad and God) and where I am going (death, the particular judgment, and an eternity in hell or purgatory/heaven.)As a Catholic, I have total certitude about the inexhaustible mystery of Being in the form of our creed and dogma: Trinity, creation, original sin, Christ, transubstantiation, angels and devils, absolution, and so forth. With such certitude, I am able to entertain a healthy, rational skepticism about tentative, empirical, political and scientific matters: for example, the saving efficacy of the expanded state (Obamacare) or of the low-taxed, low-regulated free market. Those bereft of such a sanctifying creed, are compelled, unconsciously, to construct a bogus dogmatic system in which they place their trust. The editors of The New York Times or of CNN, for example, are entirely incapable of tolerating any doubt about evolution as a mega-theory, explanatory of all life, about the catastrophic imminence of man-made global warming, or the messianic significance of contraception and legalized abortion. Deprived of a supernatural or transcendent revelation, the liberal mind substitutes a "scientistic" creed by making absolute theories and values that are vulnerable to doubt and questioning. In this manner, it is the liberal, secular mind that is irrational and anti-scientific. By contrast, as an unabashedly dogmatic Catholic, I approach issues like evolution, climate change, and contraception with a healthy, reasonable, questioning attitude...open, inquisitive, free, and therefore genuinely liberal. Bogus dogma enslaves the mind that is unaware of itself; genuine dogma frees the intellect and the will.