The Outsider’s Test and the Golden Rule

Jerry Coyne shared the cartoon below, which illustrates the tendency we have to consider that the culture, religion, species, and everything else we are brought up with is the best, rather than the more likely scenario which is that we think they are the best because they are what we were brought up with. Ironically, some atheists assume that what is sometimes called the The Outsider Test for Faith (as in the title of the book by John Loftus) leads naturally to atheism. But for some of us, the attempt to look at our own inherited religious tradition as well as atheism from the outside suggests that both have their weaknesses because they are inevitably human worldviews reflecting our limited perspective. I’d argue that the appropriate response to taking the outsider test is to inhabit some human worldview more humbly, with greater respect for those of others (because you understand what they are), rather than adoption of the stance that you have now found the one correct viewpoint, managing to break free of the shackles of human limitations.

To me, this is simply an application of the Golden Rule to our interaction with the views of others. We cannot step outside of our human perspectives. and genuinely view from “the outside.” The most we can try to do is to treat the views of others as we would want ours to be treated.