On Faith
The New Atheists – new because they proselytize their atheism quite as fervently as some Christians proselytize their Christianity – speak disparagingly of faith, by which they mean belief without evidence or even despite evidence to the contrary. This is one of the things they get right. Faith in this sense is unworthy of a True Human Being. Faith in this sense is mere opinion. We have the power to think clearly and accurately about anything we choose to find out about; it’s one of our great gifts as human beings. Not to use this faculty is to live in a diminished state of being. But that is not all there is to faith.
There is another sense of the word “faith” that is much more positive and productive. That is the determination to cleave to what we know is true despite painful feelings that would lead us to abandon it. In this sense, faith is like remembrance. Once we know something to be true – because, for instance, we have experienced evidence for it, or because we have carefully thought it out for ourselves – it is a manifestation of our power, not our vulnerability to distress, to continue to believe it despite painful emotion, or despite a temporary lack of evidence.
If faith is taken in the first sense, nothing in one’s path toward wisdom is to be taken on faith. We ask everyone to think for themselves and to consider the evidence and draw their own conclusions. If faith is taken in the second sense, it is not at all surprising that people’s faith in something they have discovered and in themselves grows through time.
There is a third state, in between these two meanings of “faith.” Many schools of personal transformation ask people just starting their training to at least suspend their disbelief. Such schools typically make assertions about human nature: that people are inherently loving, cooperative, powerful, decisive, zestful and intelligent, for instance, or that each of us is in essence of being divine, or that we each have the power to overcome our limitations and break the chains of painful and destructive habit. Such schools ask people to act as if they are in fact as the teachings say. Teachers are confident that – along with doing the prescribed practices – doing so will elicit experiences that confirm the teachings and a re-evaluation of beliefs to the contrary. This is like priming the pump. Such schools do not ask people to believe blindly, without evidence. They expect that beginning students have not yet had the experience to fully incorporate the teachings into their daily living, although they assume that everyone has had at least some glimpse of reality, somewhere in their past. They ask people to take some actions that will lead to their finding the truth without first being fully convinced of that truth. They don’t ask for people’s faith in a set of beliefs, but do ask for trust that the process will have some benefit. Or, if not trust, then at least a willingness to give it a try.
And finally there is another sense of faith, which is confidence. One might say to someone unsure of themselves, “I have faith in you,” meaning that one has confidence that the person is capable of achieving their goal. One can say this because one is able to see in them something that they cannot. Faith in this sense is very useful, because often another’s confidence in us gives us the confidence in ourselves that we need. And, most often, this kind of faith is not without evidence.
Faith as belief without proof has been the instrument of oppressive society. Faith as confidence and determination are instruments of liberation.
[This is part one of a two-part series. Click here to see part two.]
Yeah! Well said! OM…
FAITH
Faithfully yours. We could begin our communications with that greeting instead of ending that way, or perhaps we could incorporate a “faithfully yours” or “your ever faithful friend” into our connections with other.
I especially enjoyed these thoughts in the Faithful essay:
“We have the power to think clearly and accurately about anything we choose to find out about; it’s one of our great gifts as human beings. Not to use this faculty is to live in a diminished state of being.”
This set me to thinking that living in a diminished state of being is a result of not thinking clearly or accurately. It diminishes and clouds the magnificence of my higher Self. Mindful attention to faith can clear these clouds and reveal the magnificence.
When you talked about “suspending our disbelief” I was reminded of something a friend of mine responded to me when I ask for a suggestion about what to do in a particular situation.
His response was “imagine what you would do if you put all fear aside.” Although the correlation may not be quickly obvious to someone outside of my own thought processes, to me, there is a relationship between suspending disbelief and releasing fear.
This became especially evident to me as I continued with the essay and read, “…assertions about human nature: that people are inherently loving, cooperative, powerful, decisive, zestful and intelligent, for instance, or that each of us is in essence of being divine, or that we each have the power to overcome our limitations and break the chains of painful and destructive habit.” There is no room for fear, thank God, when focusing on these aspects of human nature.
Faith is magnified by the synergist energy of two or more beings who “have faith” in one another or in spiritual concept, for example. I felt this profoundly when I read, “Faith in this sense is very useful, because often another’s confidence in us gives us the confidence in ourselves that we need.”
Thank you, Bill, for having faith and confidence in me throughout these 32 years. Knowing that you have faith in members of your community, your family, your friends, and even faith in total strangers, is liberating.
Faith gives us the courage, especially with the help of friends on the spiritual path, to be free, to recognize the Divinity within, and to encourage the highest and best without our own lives and within the world as a whole.
The result of deep, abiding, sustained faith is an elevation of the consciousness of humanity. Even a glimpse of faith is elevating. Sometimes all it takes is a spark to illuminate the darkness.
Every glimmer of faith helps us move closer to our own collective and individual illumination.
Faithfully yours, Ariana
When facts change your mind, that’s Science
When thinking changes your mind, that’s Philosophy
When God changes your mind, that’s Faith
Something is missing in your exploration of Faith – the experience of truth revealed, of obstacles overcome, *by the help of a power beyond ourselves*. Religious faith is often grounded in such experiences, and that kind of faith in and submission to a higher authority can support many of the good things you cited, including the courage of conviction.
The faith of the convert does not come from ‘thinking clearly and accurately’, but from overwhelming personal experience. The phrase ‘mere opinion’ just does not do it justice. Of course, religious fundamentalism, one of the great dangers of our time, gets much of its power from this very source.
You’ve tried above to parse out the good and the bad in Faith. I think that until you look at the conversion experience, and the religious life of “God’s faithful servants”, you’ve missed a lot of both the good and the bad. You’ve missed the real argument between the Atheists and the faithful.
Larry’s comment is correct, but rather a subset of Bill’s blog, in my experience. That is, Bill’s understanding of faith sets you up for Larry’s. As one “experimentally” listens for God’s voice, from which biblically the sort of faith that Larry considers emanates (“faith comes from hearing the spoken word of God”), one is prepared for some sort of transcendental experience, evidence, that results in one being unshakably convinced. Which is even more evidence. Faith in faith comes from introspection that observes the impact of doubt waxing and waning in one’s conduct. And, in my experience, there can be no doubt about it! Seeking and hearing God speak turns one into a zealot, great in faith. And the power that we believe is a confirmation that one’s faith is “real.” (“I will show you my faith by my works. James).
So, as a scientist, I got a measure of faith from my experiments, even modest faith in God from prayer experiments. But, when I listened, and heard God speak, my scientific faith that it was indeed God speaking was affirmed by the observation that I was remarkably transformed in confidence. More faith increase than I was used to scientifically. A bit scary, actually, and Bill has noted elsewhere that it is wise to get second and third opinions that what one heard was what others were hearing at the same time. Good science. Replication of the experiment by others.
Useful discussion. Understanding of these matters, according to biblical theology, is absolutely essential to the preservation of useful faith. Historically, such understanding has usually been lacking, and faith movements are famous for their “back-sliding” into hypocrisy.
Good comments, Larry and Stephen. Might be grist for another post on this topic. Larry, my disparagement of “mere opinion” refers to belief without evidence. The religious convert, having had an overwhelming personal experience, does not lack evidence. It’s a different kind of evidence, to be sure, from that found in objective science. And there lies both its promise and its danger, as you note. Stephen gives us some good ideas about what to do with such an experience to ensure that it enhances one’s life and does not devolve into fearful refusal to change one’s mind.
I read somewhere about a Buddhist version of the awakening of faith as what happens upon recognition of the First Noble Truth: life is unsatisfactory. The faith that awakens is that there must be something better. This leads to the Second Noble Truth, that the cause of suffering is craving, and thence to the Third Noble truth that it is possible to let go of craving, and by practicing the Fourth Noble Truth one can become confident by experience.
This is related to Zeno’s version of the four stages of knowledge (according to Cicero):
Zeno stretched out his fingers, and showed the palm of his hand, – “Perception,” – he said, – “is a thing like this.”- Then, when he had closed his fingers a little, – “Assent is like this.” – Afterwards, when he had completely closed his hand, and showed his fist, that, he said, was Comprehension. From which simile he also gave that state a new name, calling it katalepsis. But when he brought his left hand against his right, and with it took a firm and tight hold of his fist: – “Knowledge” – he said, was of that character; and that was what none but a wise person possessed.
Which you’re probably familiar with, and is similar to your second, third, and fourth versions of faith, none of which work without the open palm to start with.