Intellectual Suicide or Living Faith?

Groups, institutions, and religions invariably develop certain rules and codes to which members are expected to adhere. In religion, these shared understandings are often called dogmas. Their purpose is not to confine reality but to point beyond themselves—to a truth greater than the words that describe it. They draw from the tradition and wisdom of those who have gone before us and serve as guides along the way.

Dogmas point to truth and reality; they are not the reality itself. Yet we can remain limited to mere intellectual adherence to these dogmas without ever seeking to experience the deeper reality to which they point. When this happens, we close our hearts and minds to something far more transformative. Blind adherence to dogma, without lived encounter, becomes a kind of intellectual suicide rather than living faith.

As Alan Watts observes that irrevocable commitment to dogma is intellectual suicide, because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Intellectual suicide occurs when we resist deeper or renewed understanding. Our knowledge is never complete; every insight remains partial. To cling rigidly to fixed formulations as final and exhaustive is to deny the dynamic nature of truth and human growth.

Watts further reminds us that “Faith is, above all, openness—an act of trust in the unknown.” True faith does not imprison us within dogma; it allows dogma to become a doorway. It invites us beyond formulas into encounter. Genuine faith gives us the humility to acknowledge the Great Mystery that transcends human comprehension and nurtures trust rather than control.

When we allow our understanding to deepen and renew, we begin to see life and the Sacred with greater clarity and wonder. The choice before us is clear: intellectual suicide or living faith. One closes the mind in fear of uncertainty; the other opens the heart in courageous trust.

Certainty can comfort us—but openness transforms us.

Notes

Watts, A. (1989). The book: On the taboo against knowing who you are. Vintage Books.