NO TO DOGMAS!
"Dogmatism, no matter what, is the support of all authorities and all powers."
- Cengiz Aytmatov
One of the obstacles preventing a person from developing life skills, achieving life goals, and consequently being happy is having a dogmatic mindset. Individuals with dogmatic thinking accept absolute values that will never change, believe that everything they hold as true is an unquestionable reality, and adopt these beliefs without questioning or feeling the need for research or examination. For them, dogmas are truths that should never be questioned.
Dogmatism is a mindset that darkens not only the lives of individuals but also societies, hindering all forms of progress. Every person and society that claims their own ideas and beliefs to be absolute truths is dogmatic. It is inevitable for individuals and societies that are closed to scientific thought, experiments, observations, and research to become mired in the swamp of dogmatism.
The most evident consequence of dogmatism is an assault on human rights and the perpetuation of tyranny. Dogmatism reached its peak during the Middle Ages. Challenging the Church's authority meant being tried in the Inquisition courts and subjected to torture. In this system, which had no tolerance for differing views, scientific thought was suspended, and the path chosen to ensure people aligned their thinking with the Church was through the brutal tortures of the Inquisition.
According to the great Dutch philosopher Spinoza, "If people always acted according to an unfailing counsel (by which Spinoza refers to scientific reasoning and intellect) or if their fortunes were consistently favorable, they would never fall into the clutches of superstition. But they are often driven into such dire straits that they become incapable of heeding any counsel and, in their desperate pursuit of the fortune they desire, which may favor no one in particular, they wander helplessly between hope and fear. Because of this, they are highly prone to believing in anything. When doubts surround such a mind, the slightest push can easily sway it one way or the other." Here, Spinoza clearly and unequivocally identified in the 17th century why people cling to superstitions and dogmas.
Plato, in his work The Republic, illustrated how dogmatism is formed, how dogmatic individuals resist change and development, and how dogmas limit human thinking power through the "Allegory of the Cave." An allegory is defined as the representation of a thought, behavior, or action through symbols, figurative language, or comparisons to make it easier to comprehend. Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" can be summarized as follows:
According to the allegory, life is like being chained in a cave, forced to watch shadows cast on a wall. The allegory describes a group of people who have been imprisoned in a cave since birth, chained in such a way that they face the wall and cannot turn their heads. They have never encountered the outside world and have no knowledge of it. From time to time, the shadows of people and various creatures passing in front of the cave are cast onto the wall. The prisoners mistake these shadows and their echoes for reality, assigning names to them and classifying them as if they were the true nature of existence.
One day, one of the prisoners is released and finds himself outside for the first time. His eyes, accustomed to the darkness, are overwhelmed by the sunlight, causing discomfort and pain. He finds the new environment extremely confusing. When others tell him that the things around him are real and that the shadows are merely reflections of reality, he refuses to believe them. His eyes, used to the darkness, perceive the shadows more clearly. Gradually, as his eyes adjust to the sunlight, the freed prisoner begins to see everything around him more distinctly. He can now look directly at the objects and realizes that the source of light causing the shadows is the sun.
The freed prisoner, eager to share what he has seen, returns to the cave to tell his still-chained friends about the outside world. However, having lost his familiarity with the darkness, he can no longer see the shadows as clearly as before. Despite explaining everything he has experienced, his friends refuse to believe him. Instead, they think he has become foolish and blind after going outside. As a result, they stubbornly refuse to leave the cave, no matter how much he tries to persuade them.
In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the cave represents society as a whole; the prisoners symbolize the ignorant segment of society that lacks individuality, critical thinking, and questioning skills. The chains represent dogmas that prevent people from thinking and questioning, while the knowledge shaped by society and blindly accepted without question symbolizes the beliefs people are conditioned to accept uncritically.
The Allegory of the Cave can also be used to symbolize the conflict between two opposing worldviews that have been at odds with each other for centuries. One of these views is dogmatism, which holds that certain teachings or "a priori" principles are unchanging, that certain accepted knowledge and values are absolute truths, and therefore, there is no need to investigate or examine them. In dogmatism, there is an absolute commitment to accepted "dogmas" without resorting to scientific methods such as experiment, observation, research, and examination. Throughout history, humanity has passed through periods where investigating and questioning these dogmas was considered a great sin. For example, in the medieval Scholastic culture, dogmatism even developed the belief that "a person thrown into fire, though innocent, will not burn." Naturally, anyone who burns after being thrown into fire was considered guilty. People raised in a dogmatic mindset, when their unquestioned dogmas are scrutinized and criticized, are likely to turn into violent figures, armed with weapons or clubs. As Plato also pointed out, dogmatic individuals, not only living in ignorance but also feeling a sense of happiness within this ignorance, tend to harbor hostility toward those who expose and challenge this ignorance.
Scientific thinking enables questioning, research, and the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships. Those who think scientifically resist the dogmas presented to them and are not like those chained and imprisoned in the cave, accepting whatever is given without questioning. The ability to think scientifically frees individuals from the dogmatic chains and, thus, from enslavement.
One of the most compelling stories about dogmatism is the one told by Siddhartha Gautama, known as the founder of Buddhism, to his monks.
A father, widowed at a young age, had dedicated his life to his only son. One day, while he was away working outside the village, bandits raided the village, burned all the houses, and kidnapped his young son. Upon returning to find his village in ruins, the father desperately searched for his child. When he found the charred body of a child in the smoldering village, he mistakenly believed it was his son’s remains. He proceeded with the funeral rites, cremating the body completely, collecting the ashes, and placing them in a bag. He carried the ashes of his son on his shoulder, never removing the bag. A perpetual mourning began. From then on, wherever he went, he took the bag of ashes with him.
However, his son was alive and one day managed to escape from the bandits. He walked for days and found his way back to his village. Late one night, he knocked on the door of the new house his father had built in place of their ruined home. The father asked:
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Who is it?
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It’s me, your son. Open the door, father! The unhappy father, who never parted with the ashes of the child he believed to be his son, thought a wretched person was mocking him.
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Go away! he shouted. The son knocked on the door repeatedly, calling on his father to open it and talk to him. But he always received the same reply:
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Go away! Losing hope, the son eventually left, never to return. When Buddha finished the story, he bowed his head. He was silent for a moment. Then, lifting his head and looking at his monks, he spoke slowly: “If you cling to an idea as though it were absolute truth, when the truth itself comes knocking at your door, you will no longer have the ability to open that door and face it.”
Today, it would not be far-fetched to draw a connection between television programs, documentaries, and news broadcasts that aim to shape the perceptions of children and young people, and the shadows cast on the wall of the cave in Buddha's story. In an age where smartphones and tablets, constantly in the hands of children, young people, and even adults at home, school, workplaces, and during travel, have replaced books, a path has been paved for the emergence of generations that do not think, question, or investigate but instead adopt dogmatic beliefs as their guide. It seems unlikely that these generations will follow global developments, acquire the qualities required by evolving societies, or contribute to the advancement of their own communities.
As a country, it remains essential to emphasize once again that the only way to break free from this situation-in other words, to shatter dogmatic chains and step into the light-is through the establishment of a quality education system. Such a system must be built upon well-trained teachers who advocate for scientific thinking. This need is not limited to the education system alone but extends to politics, economics, judiciary, defense, and, in short, all societal subsystems. What we require are free-thinking individuals who focus on real objects and the source of light rather than mere images on the wall, liberated from the shackles of dogmatic chains. This demand can only be met through a development process initiated by cultivating a highly qualified educational workforce. It is impossible not to recall Plato’s allegory of the cave and note his profound sympathy for the philosopher who strives to educate the public.