Excuses
One reason people believe what they do is that evidence and observation suggest that the belief is true. But people also hold beliefs because they’re emotionally invested –- they’ll feel better believing something is true. It’s generally called self-deception, as people try to subconsciously deny or rationalize opposing evidence in an attempt to hold on to their cherished viewpoint. But when the facts are overwhelmingly against previously held beliefs, most self-deception gives way to resigned acceptance of reality.
And yet faith doesn’t work that way. Even if their beliefs are contradicted by observation, people are encouraged to believe anyway. There’s no deception going on –- religion is quite open about its distaste for evidence. It’s a fascinating defense mechanism -– our tenets might not make sense, but you should believe anyway! Many of my religious friends have expressed this idea to me in one form or another. For example, one friend told me that faith is so simple a child can understand it, but so complex the smartest scholar will not. She was not amused by my earnest follow-up question on why faith only makes sense to those without critical thinking skills.
I dislike this kind of nonsense even when it’s not religious. The always-misused expression “The exception that proves the rule” is just as bad. Normally, when a theory makes no sense or is contradicted by evidence, we discard it. With faith, that’s when you’re considered even more virtuous for believing! The human eye is a complex organ that works well? It’s evidence of an intelligent designer! There’s an inconvenient blind spot right in the middle of the retina? Well… we don’t know why God would put that there, but we don’t expect to understand his higher reasoning.
I’m trying to make a list, and was hoping you could help me out with more examples. We’re looking for religious excuses for why people should believe without evidence supporting that belief. Here’s a start:
- “’Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” John 20:29
- “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
- “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” Light Shining out of Darkness, a hymn by William Cowper
- “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Luke 10:21
I know there are more, and I’d love to hear them.
To believe implies two distinct methods:
1. To accept as true on the grounds of demonstrable, replicable, testable deductions from falsifiable claims made from evidence.
2. To accept as true in the face of contradictory evidence, on the basis of authority based not on expertise but on tradition.
The latter is what “faith” really is – as well understood bu real Christians, such as the theologians of the Vatican. Stupid fundies meanwhile imagine that somehow they can bolster faith with evidence.
The fact is that if evidence supports your faith and you think it matters your faith is not real faith. The much-ridiculed Tertullian understood that, and his infamous *Certum est quia impossibile est* is NOT ridiculous; it is an honest acknowledgment that faith MUST extend beyond what is reasonable or it is simply not actual faith.
What is important now is that Humanists and other freethinkers recognize the difference between (1) and (2). This is a basic epistemological issue. To fuss over biblical citations is a distraction. The fundies foolishly imagine that the Bible is the foundation of Chiristianity. It is not. The church, not any book, is the custodian of the faith.
The Calvin-Luther “sola scriptura” doctrine needs to be exposed as fallacious. Let us not get down in the gutter with the ignorant fundies and wallow in pointless exchanging of salvos of scripture verses. Taking seriously the fundie pretense that their Bible-centered bibliolatry is Christianity only reinforces their delusions as if legitimate.
At times I wish my Humanist brethren would forego attention to atheism and instead study theology. As Huxley saw in 1961, Humanism need not oppose current religious orthodoxy but will supersede it. The present century can be the humanistic century.