They don’t know how to think.
They only know how to believe.
And that’s the problem.

We are living in a time when belief has eclipsed thought, when certainty has replaced curiosity, and when blind faith—not reason—is shaping everything from public education to national policy. The result is a society where complex problems are met not with inquiry, but with scripture. Where science is dismissed as heresy. Where slogans substitute for analysis, and feelings masquerade as facts.

We are no longer a nation in conversation.
We are a nation in testimony.

This isn’t just about religion, though religion plays a central role. It’s about the wholesale collapse of critical thinking. It’s about a culture that elevates loyalty over logic, obedience over openness, dogma over doubt.

Let’s be clear: belief, in itself, is not the enemy. Humans are wired to believe. We believe in causes, in people, in possibilities. We believe in love and justice and progress. But belief that shuts out thought—that slams the door on evidence and burns the books that challenge it—is dangerous.

Because belief without thought isn’t strength.
It’s surrender.

The Difference Between Thinking and Believing

Thinking is a discipline. It requires curiosity, humility, and effort. Thinking means entertaining the possibility that you might be wrong, and being willing to change your mind when the facts demand it.

Believing, on the other hand, as it’s practiced in fundamentalist settings, demands the opposite. It requires certainty. It forbids doubt. It elevates emotional conviction above intellectual rigor. And it punishes deviation from the orthodoxy.

You don’t question the Bible.
You don’t challenge the pastor.
You don’t ask how Eve came from a rib or why an all-loving God needs eternal hell.

You just believe.

That mindset doesn’t stay in church. It seeps into school boards, state legislatures, and Supreme Court rulings. It turns political ideologies into quasi-religious cults where facts don’t matter, only faith in the tribe.

What It Costs Us

We are seeing the damage in real time:

• Science classes where evolution is erased and creationism is preached.

• Libraries stripped of books that acknowledge LGBTQ+ existence or America’s racist past.

• Public health campaigns crippled by conspiracy theories wrapped in religious language.

• Abortion bans rooted in scripture, not medical reality.

• Politicians praying for climate change to go away rather than legislating against it.

In this America, truth isn’t discovered. It’s declared.

And if your truth doesn’t conform to theirs, you’re not just wrong, you’re evil.

This Is by Design

The rise of anti-intellectualism is not an accident. It is the fuel of authoritarianism and fundamentalism alike. Critical thinking threatens those in power. It asks too many questions. It exposes contradictions. It refuses to kneel.

You can’t control people who ask why.
You can’t dominate people who demand proof.

And so, thinking becomes heresy. School becomes indoctrination. Dissent becomes blasphemy.

It’s no coincidence that the same movements attacking public education are pushing theocracy. They understand the stakes better than we do. If you can teach people not how to think but what to believe, you can control them. Permanently.

As Voltaire said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

Fundamentalism vs. Sanity

This isn’t belief vs. non-belief.
It’s fundamentalism vs. sanity.

It’s the mindset that says the King James Bible is literal history. That the Earth is 6,000 years old. That anyone who believes otherwise is an agent of Satan. That faith must be enforced, and dissent silenced.

And somehow, in this upside-down moral universe, secularism is cast as the threat.

Let’s be crystal clear: secularism isn’t anti-religion. It’s the reason we’re not killing each other in the name of God. Secularism creates the neutral ground where everyone—believer, doubter, atheist—can coexist in peace. It protects the right to believe and the right not to.

But to the fundamentalist, neutrality is betrayal. They don’t want a seat at the table. They want to flip it over and declare a theocracy.

Reclaiming Thought

We are in a crisis not just of politics, but of cognition. Of how we process truth. Of whether we value thought at all.

We have to fight for thinking the way others fight for prayer in schools.
We have to teach media literacy like it’s a survival skill—because it is.
We have to treat doubt not as a sin but as a sign of an active mind.

And we must defend secularism not as some abstract Enlightenment ideal, but as a daily safeguard against tyranny disguised as piety.

They don’t know how to think.
They only know how to believe.
And if we don’t start teaching people how to think again, we’ll be ruled by those who never learned.