Building Cultures of Trust

There has been widespread concern about the breakdown of trust in modern society at many different levels. Writing from an American viewpoint, the author begins at the grassroots, examining ways of building cultural trust in local communities and from there into institutions of central government. This means constructive communication rather than talking past each other, and the author illustrates this in an interesting way with a discussion of debates in science and religion, where people with opposing viewpoints exhibit very little trust in each other. Many people are not aware of the weak points of their own arguments and may fail to understand the relationship between different universes of discourse, each of which may be valid in its own terms. A particular contrast is made between the French writer Paul Valery and William James. In conversing about what it means to be human, it is clear that the scientist, priest, historian and poet will have distinctive modes of experience which do not clash on topics of ordinary conversation, but which can diverge on deeper matters. Behind all this lies both a deeper humanism and a common humanity which can open up new avenues of exploration between science and religion.