I want to challenge the notion that being deluded is a bad thing.

What is a delusion?

It's when you believe something that’s untrue, and yet you believe it so strongly that you base your life's decisions on that belief. When such is your worldview, we say that you are deluded.

For you to say that somebody is deluded, you have to know that what he believes in is wrong. In other words, you have to know the truth to conclude that the other person is deluded.

So, for a delusion to exist, there has to be some truth on the other side.

Richard Dawkins has written a book called The God Delusion. So atheists believe that the people who believe in God (and of course, when they believe in God, they base their life's decisions on that belief) are deluded.

I believe that we live in a computer simulation. So somebody who believes in God is going to say I'm deluded. For somebody who believes in the Big Bang or evolution, I could say that person is deluded.

(Although everything, from God, and the Big Bang to evolution, is compatible with Simulation Theory, but that’s another topic.)

However, the one who believes in the Big Bang, for example, may think he is the most rational person. But let's say after 100 years, science finds that the Big Bang theory was incorrect. Wouldn't that render the person who believes in the Big Bang today deluded after the fact?

If after a century, it's proven that evolution is not how we've come to be here, and maybe the mammals arrived on this planet from some other planet with a comet or an asteroid, that would mean those who believe in evolution will be rendered deluded because then evolution was a delusion. But today they don’t think they are deluded.

In order for one to conclude that something is a delusion, one has to have a hold of the truth.

But what is the truth? Do we know the truth?

We don't. Nobody knows the truth.

We believe that we know the truth, and then we look at other people who believe in something else, some other truth, and then we call them deluded.

And everybody calls every other group deluded.

But nobody knows the actual truth.

So in a sense, if nobody knows the truth, one who believes that they know the truth and their belief is the correct one is deluded.

Which means that everybody is deluded. And if everybody is deluded what does it say about delusions? That means a delusion is not a bad thing.

A delusion is required to maintain sanity.

If you acknowledge you don't know the truth, then how can you operate?

Is there God? We don't know. Are we living in a simulation? We don't know. Is evolution true? We don't know. Did we come from another planet? We don't know. We just don't know anything!

See? If you acknowledge that we don't know the fundamentals of our existence, there's no anchor. Then you would go crazy because there has to be a foundational belief that works as an anchor from where you can operate with sanity.

If you don't have the anchor what will you say yes to? What will you agree with?

Then we’re just lost.

There has to be some foundation, do you get it?

But whatever your foundation is, that is, by definition, a delusion because you don't know the truth.

Science has changed in various theories in the past. The Big Bang is being challenged. The theory of Evolution is being challenged. So who is to say that these theories, or any other “truths” for that matter, will not be overturned in the future?

If you're certain that the currently established “truths” will never be overturned in the future because these are the truths, then that makes you deluded.

So what I want to say is, everybody is deluded. And everybody is deluded because delusion is required to maintain sanity.

And that means delusion is a good thing.

So whenever you see somebody you think is deluded, because their beliefs don't match yours, you must feel empathy for that person.

You have to understand why that person is deluded. It’s because that person does not want to go crazy. Just as you are deluded because you don't want to be crazy. It's just that your beliefs are different.

You can't be free of delusions; you can only choose yours.