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The Problem With Sincerity

Pause for a moment to think about the above question, keeping in mind civil law.  If someone is driving 50 mph without realizing they are in a 30mph zone, the policeman will still write them a ticket (if he/she is not in a forgiving mood). So sincere ignorance of (in this case) the law does not nullity the consequences for being sincerely wrong!

Let’s look at another example from the laws of nature.  A person can who has been given a faulty parachute can believe as sincerely (and as fervently) as they want that their parachute is not defective, but their sincerity will not change their reality.  But if they don’t discover the problem before jumping out of the plane, their misplaced sincerity will cost them their lives because the reality of gravity will override the sincerity of their belief in the parachute.
 

So, whether we’re dealing with either physical or spiritual realities, being sincere may not be enough.  Being sincere without being correct can have serious short, long term and eternal consequences.  So reality trumps sincerity every time.
 

Now in most cases, sincerity is a good thing and is commonly associated with personal integrity.  Just about everyone admires those who sincerely hold to and live according to what they believe.  But very few respect those they believe to be sincerely wrong…like the Nazis and terrorists whose beliefs are to be denounced and viewed as despicable.  Even when we hear about people who believe that the president of the United States is being inhabited by an alien, while some might be amused, the view of such a belief (no matter how sincere) is regarded as utter nonsense or totally sad.  When the rubber meets the road, most everyone seems to know that sincerity, without being founded upon reality is not enough.

Everyone has been sincerely wrong.  Being sincerely wrong about what time dinner will be served is one thing.  Being wrong about where you will spend eternity is another matter all together.  When we die, we cannot cease to exist, be reincarnated and go on to eternal life at the same time.  It’s either one or the other and the sincerity about our present belief does not mean that what we believe is true.  

Hopefully, it makes sense to conclude that we need to look beyond the sincerity of our own personal beliefs in order to find out what is true…so we can sincerely believe that!  

A few questions to thoughtfully consider…

• How is it that every single person on the planet is going to be right about what they “believe” regarding eternal life when everyone is wrong about so many things in this life?
• Does believing something hard enough or sincerely enough make it automatically come true every time?  It doesn’t happen in this life so why should it happen in the next?