In a way, I can understand the Puritan's predicament. Emotion-laced beliefs are hard to shake, even when logic tells you that they are baseless. I can relate somewhat to the Puritan's pyrophobia. If I ever have a child, I will make sure that he gets baptized ... just in case. And believing as I do after thirteen years of Catholic school that there is an off chance that committing suicide wins you a one way ticket to hell, I shudder when I imagine myself in the predicament of the people in the World Trade Center who had to choose whether to jump to their deaths or passively submit to being burned alive. Happily, though, in my day-to-day life I am able to put my pyrophobia aside and think logically and critically, due in part, I must believe, to the thinkers of the American Enlightenment. These thinkers, such as Thomas Jefferson, taught us to "Fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion" and to "Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."
Pyrophobia can be overcome. We must strive to do so.
Note: This article was previously published on the Secular Web. This file and many more are available at the Secular Web: http://www.infidels.org/(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
