#722 Claims of an Indian Guru
March 07, 2021Hello Dr.Craig,
I'm from India. An Indian who popularly known as "Sadhguru" claims, "If we believe X, that means we don't know X. Believing is something people do when they don't know things." So he starts saying we should stop believing and start SEEKING the truth. He asks everyone to be a seeker not a believer. He dismisses every religion other than Hinduism saying all those religions are nothing but belief systems where people don't know the truth or reality and they just believe in some stories. He basically teaches people that they should start seeking the truth without believing anything (i. e., admitting that they don't know anything). So how do we respond to this and how do we define what believing and seeking is? I hope you answer this question. Thank you.
Jehova Honey
India
Dr. craig’s response
A
I’m afraid that this man’s teachings (if you have related them accurately) are just a mishmash of incoherent claims. Take the claim that "If we believe X, then we don't know X.” That implies logically that “If we know X, then we don’t believe X.” But philosophers agree to the contrary that knowledge entails belief and truth. It would be paradoxical to affirm, “I know that 2+2=4, but I don’t believe it.” Similarly, it would be paradoxical to affirm, “I know that 2+2=4, but it is not true.” Contrary to Sadhguru, believing is something people do when they know things. You can believe something without knowing it (as in the case of false beliefs), but you can’t know something without believing it—and believing it truly.
Now consider his claim that “we should stop believing and start SEEKING the truth.” Why? I thought that, according to him, if you believe something, then you don’t know it. So believing is perfectly consistent, on his view, with seeking the truth. It’s knowledge, not belief, that he should disparage as incompatible with seeking, since if you know something is true, you don’t need to seek the truth--you already know it. But if you just believe it, then why not seek the truth? No need to stop believing!
Now consider his claim that “all those religions are nothing but belief systems where people don't know the truth.” Really? Does he know this? How? I thought that on his view people don’t know anything. So maybe he only believes this but doesn’t know it. In that case, why think it’s true? (For reasons to think that the Christian religion is true, see my Reasonable Faith, 3rd ed. [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2008].)
Similarly, his claim that people “should start seeking the truth without believing anything (i. e., admitting that they don't know anything)” doesn’t make sense. On his view if you believe something, then you don’t know it. So believing things is perfectly compatible with admitting that you don’t know them. If you know nothing, then you can believe anything.
- William Lane Craig