Three Dangerous Ideas Too Many Humans Believe

Together, behavior resulting from belief in them may ultimately destroy us, but we can change those beliefs

Photo by Pedro Lima on Unsplash

We human animals are cursed by our ability, with our languages, to share untrue, potentially harmful ideas as well as good ones. When large numbers of people believe harmful ideas, such people can become dangerous and ultimately self-destructive in their group behaviors. Here are three of the most potentially harmful ideas many people share:

1. “We humans are more than simply animals. We are special creations of a God.”
2. “People who look like, talk like, and agree with me are the best kind of people.”
3. “God, or special individuals possibly acting on God’s behalf, can solve our problems.”

Instead of accepting dangerously misleading ideas like those, we can choose to believe alternatives:

1. We humans are simply social animals with an extraordinary ability to communicate and coordinate our group behaviors.
2. No kinds of animals are intrinsically “favored”. Some, like us humans, have had great reproductive success, resulting in large populations, but that will not be good for us in the long run because we are destroying the environment upon which we depend for life.
3. People who look like, talk like, and agree with me are not intrinsically special. I am just a social animal like you. My ideas and consequent behavior are what matter.
4. No “God”, single individual, or small group of individuals will solve our large, collective problems peacefully. That is up to all of us working cooperatively, using our amazing language abilities to create workable solutions.