Its an interesting notion, faith, something that, at one time, I was full of, however, over time, after becoming an adult, I simply was not capable of sustaining. There are two somewhat conflicting views of faith that I find interesting, the first, and one that many people use in everyday usage is more or less as a substitute for "hope" but stronger somehow, this never really made sense to me, but whatever.
The second meaning is more clear cut, and the one used in religious and other contexts, belief in things without evidence. Even most religious people understand this meaning, hence part of the hostility they feel towards atheists who demand evidence. This, I believe, is part of the problem, all of us have certain beliefs without objective evidence, however, most rational people also recognize that they aren't objectively true. They are more like preferences rather than objective truths.
For example, I may believe that Star Trek is better than Star Wars, and to be honest, this is true, from my own perspective. However, this is also a judgment call and subjective, even if I think Star Wars fans are going to hell. :)
Yet I wouldn't say I have faith that Star Trek is better, that wouldn't make any sense, its a preference on my part, no more, no less. Religious beliefs aren't like this, there are claims within religions that are thought to be objectively true by religious people, whether anyone else believes in them or not. For example, the existence of God is claimed to be objectively true by the followers of the big 3 religions, and since there is no objective nor testable evidence for this being, it's taken as faith.
The fact is that many of the claims of religion are like this, and even the religious know that these things are generally untestable, hence the reason for the term "leap of faith", basically asking people to suspend their critical thinking skills so they can believe the impossible. What I find particularly disturbing is that, throughout our culture, this is considered a good thing, rather than a bad thing. Frankly I don't understand this, why is believing the nonsensical a positive?
Why is reality so disconcerting that people wish to discard it? I used to have faith, I was raised Catholic, but I also had a curious mind, and a relatively open one, so I encountered a problem. That problem was that my own inquisitiveness lead me to question my faith, and frankly I found it wanting. I wouldn't term it a rebelling against the religion, unlike many people within the Church, I never had anything negative in my experience that caused me to turn away. It was just a fading of my beliefs of the tenets of the Church, and then, after examining what was left, simply discarding it as useless and nonsensical.
What is most interesting about this realization was the lack of trauma and drama involved, unlike many atheists, I didn't fear family rejection if I stopped going to church, or if I told them my lack of belief, it simply wasn't a concern. In addition, I found myself more grounded than ever before in my life, no hole left behind where the faith was, simply a grounding in my own views on ethics and how I perceive reality. I took a methodological outlook on life, examining everything I could about the world, society, and humans ourselves with a critical outlook. I actually called it nothing, and indeed, I wasn't aware that this type of outlook even had a name until recently, methodological naturalism. Before that I simply called it a scientific outlook, but that seemed too limiting.
Well, this is my first musing on my outlook on life, its a doozy, and I'm wordy enough as it is, so I'll end it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment