Faith

This entry is about why I think faith is dangerous, but let me clarify something first. Full disclosure here.  I'm not an atheist, new, old, or otherwise.  We know more about physics and cosmology than any civilization, ever, but there's a lot more that we don't know. Nobody has any firm notion of what gravity really is, or time, or how many dimensions may actually exist.  Read about string theory or quantum mechanics a bit, and existence suddenly seems pretty strange and confounding.  So I, for one, am very cautious about drawing conclusions on the nature of existence.  If you need a label, call me a provisional agnostic in search of data.

Faith is, by definition, belief without substantiation.  There's nothing wrong with believing whatever you like.  Imaginary friends are, for the most part, harmless. But if you act on the basis of irrational beliefs, you become a danger to self and others, or at least very annoying.

If you tell me you believe thus-and-so, that's fine. But if you want me to believe the same thing, you need to offer evidence. And I'm talking about empirical, quantifiable evidence, not rhetorical arguments or personal narratives. I don't believe anything simply because someone tells me it's true. If I were that foolish, I would have been dead decades ago.   If you claim prayer can effect events, show me your data.  If you claim people who worship your god make more money, show me the numbers.  If you claim you have miraculous healing powers, I've got a job for you. Claims of that kind should be pretty easy to substantiate. 

If you tell me I have an immortal soul, there's no way to test that, is there?  Well, I guess there is, but there's no way to recover any data. There are lots of stories and myths and anecdotal narratives, but that's all.  

Life is difficult and always terminal. Bad things happen for no apparent reason. The universe is a dangerous place. We're members of an inherently violent species that's always in heat, and whose behavior is erratic. We struggle to find some predictability; some reassurance that we aren't going to die momentarily and that this struggle and pain of life is all worthwhile.  Our minds abhor chaos because chaos is dangerous. So if we can't see patterns in the world around us, we invent them. This seems to be the pattern for every life form we know of that has any sort of self-awareness. It's in our wetware.  Ink blot tests and superstitious conditioning are two examples.

(http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~psych200/unit3/32.htm)

There are things I'd like to believe are true. I'd like to believe kindness, empathy and compassion are rewarded. I'd like to believe evil never wins. I'd like to believe I'll see my dead mother again someday. I'd like to believe I'm going to win the lottery on Saturday. I'd like to believe my social security benefit will arrive every month, adjusted for inflation as needed, until the day I die. It doesn't hurt me to believe some of these things, and may make me feel better. Believing others can only hurt me. There's no evidence I'll see my mother again, but it doesn't hurt me to entertain that idea occasionally.  But spending money today that I'm sure I'll win tomorrow could land me in jail.  And not stashing away a little money every month, for as long as I can, would be just plain stupid. 

Evidence is important. Faith is dangerous. If you can convince a man that he'll have it made in an afterlife and you make him miserable enough in the here-and-now, you can make him do anything, like become a suicide bomber.  Create enough unreasoning faith in government and you'll get people eager for battle against enemies real or imaginary, or against each other.

Now go watch the news for 30 minutes and tell me I'm wrong.