Faith

Is it right to believe things by faith, rather than reason? There is a downside to faith. Some people will believe by faith things that I consider wrongheaded; if they believed those things by reason, I might be able to reason them out of them; but if they believe them by faith, there is nothing I can obviously do to dissuade them. Even worse, some people will believe horrendous and reprehensible things by faith (e.g. the faith that God exists and wants them to kill the infidels.)

And yet, I want to believe, and do believe:

In the long-run, if my desires are good, then the universe will be favourable to them.

I know this claim is incapable of rational proof or disproof. And yet, I do believe it, by something I cannot clearly distinguish from religious faith, even though, it is a much broader and vaguer statement than most things religious people hold by faith.

Other statements which are articles of faith for me:

— In the long-run, everyone will come to believe the truth, whatever the truth may be.

— In the long-run, people will always desire what is good. The apparent desire for evil, is ultimately caused either by holding false beliefs about the world, or insufficient trust in the truthfulness of true beliefs held.

I cannot prove any of these statements. But I do believe them to be true.

I think faith is defensible, as follows: Reason proceeds either by logic (deductive reasoning), or by observation (empirical reasoning). Now, logic cannot ultimately prove anything, without making assumptions, other than ultimately empty truisms. So, with logic one can know abstract statements like “If A implies B, and B implies C, then A implies C”, without needing to make any assumptions. And yet, that is not knowledge of the what is and is not; it is knowledge that is essentially empty. Empirical reasoning can only derive truth from experience, if we accept certain assumptions — such as the regularity of nature. Those assumptions themselves cannot themselves be demonstrated by either logic or empirical reasoning. So, the use of reason is only possible if one accepts extra-rational assumptions, in other things, through believing things by faith. And, I think the fact that reason requires a foundation of faith, shows that the operations of reason and faith cannot be clearly distinguished anyway.

Why do people believe wrongheaded or reprehensible things by faith? Due to the social reality in which they exist. I think the claim that “my religion is right and yours is wrong”, is often, but not necessarily always, reducible to “you are not part of my social group and so you make me feel uneasy”. If that is true, then, if they actually form stronger personal relations with members of that other group, then they will end up giving up their faith that their group’s religion is right and the other group’s religion is wrong.

By contrast, improving personal relationships with others, will not result in us giving up our faith that “In the long-run, everyone will come to believe the truth, whatever the truth may be” — on the contrary, it can only serve to strengthen that faith.

And, this I think is the answer to my original concern “if they believed those things by reason, I might be able to reason them out of them; but if they believe them by faith, there is nothing I can obviously do to dissuade them” — let us consider an anti-Semite. No amount of rational reasons as to why anti-Semitism is wrong, is likely to convince them to give up their anti-Semitism. On the other hand, getting to know and form relationships with Jewish people almost certainly will help, and I’m sure in the long run will succeed.

I disapprove of racism. But is my disapproval due to racism’s obvious irrationality? Or is it due to the fact that I grew up in a multicultural society, from an early age forming personal relationships with people of a variety of different races/ethnicities, and someone who grows up under such circumstances is likely to end up disapproving of racism? If someone says “group X is inferior”, and people of group X are my friends, then they are insulting my friends. And, people don’t take kindly to their friends being insulted. Then again, if I had have been born in a different time or place, which was much more ethnically homogenous, I would have been much less likely to form personal relationships with people of diverse backgrounds, and thus much more likely to hold racist views, or at least, to not look upon racism so disfavourably.

And this is why I think a universalist faith is more justifiable than one rooted in religious parochialism.