What is faith?

It's a surprisingly tricky question!

We were having a discussion about religion at Main Street Plaza (so what else is new?), and I noticed that different people were using very different definitions of the word "faith"!

I've found that a lot of unnecessary confusion and misunderstanding can result from assuming that everyone is using a word to mean the same thing when they're not. So I wrote a new post: What is Faith? to help each person clarify which definition(s) they're using -- with a fun list of twenty statements that may or may not be "faith"!

The answer sets we've gotten so far show a surprising variety in what people would call "faith". Try it yourself -- but be sure to write out your own answers before reading other people's.

I'm not claiming that one set of responses is necessarily right -- I'm just curious to see the range of opinions! :D

See also my earlier post on the definition of faith: It takes a lot of faith to believe that!!!

Faith vs. Bias

My earlier post on faith was apparently confusing (judging from the comments). No wonder -- it was a bit of a double-negative: I wrote something negative about what faith isn't. To compensate, I'd like to say something positive about what faith is. (People of faith: please feel free to correct/clarify in the comments -- I don't claim to be an expert on this subject).

I'll start with a definition from my own tradition (Alma 32:21):

faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

So what is the justification for believing something that's not "seen"? (Here, I assume that things which are "seen" means things which are measurable via the standard senses and/or scientific instruments.)

Here are some possible justifications for believing a given proposition:

1. Spiritual/Miraculous Witness: "I have experienced spiritual or miraculous manifestations that defy natural explanation."


2. Hope or Leap-of-Faith: "I'm totally sure that X is true, however I think X deserves the benefit of the doubt, so I believe X."


3. Unintentional Bias: "I want X to be true, and my bias prevents me from approaching the question with any kind of even-handedness or objectivity."


4. Wilful Dishonesty: "I want X to be true, and I feel justified in believing whatever I want because I'm sure that everyone else is biased or dishonest too."

Now, the whole point of my earlier post (and its predecessor) was that options #3 and #4 are not "faith". If you are a person of faith, and you think that either #3 or #4 is a reasonable description of how "faith" works, then you should do a little introspection and perhaps hold yourself up to a higher standard of honesty. And when you accuse atheists of having "faith" of varieties #3 and #4 above, you are not paying your own faith a compliment.

Now how does atheism [lack of belief in God(s)] fit into the above four categories?

Atheists are all over the map, so they can potentially fall into any of them:

1. Spiritual/Miraculous Witness: This is the one atheists are most likely to reject, yet there do exist people who believe in the supernatural without believing in God(s).


2. Hope or Leap-of-Faith: There are perhaps a few atheists here, but I think most atheists fall into a related category which I'll call category 5. Weighing Naturalistic Evidence: "I'm not 100% certain that X is correct, however, I have examined the evidence, and of all the possibilities, I think X is the most likely." (That's pretty much how science works in general.)


3. Unintentional Bias: Atheists are only human, so some of them almost certainly fall into this category. (I'm not claiming 100% certainty here though! ;^) )


4. Wilful Dishonesty: As with #3, there are probably some here too.

Note that's it's also possible to consider a question even-handedly and still make an honest mistake. That can account for some of the disagreement in the world.

Also, IMHO, category 4 (I want X to be true, and I feel justified in believing whatever I want because I'm sure that everyone else is biased or dishonest too) is the one that is truly repugnant. All the others are either right or potentially honest mistakes.

I think that it's probably impossible for humans to overcome (or even recognize) all of their biases 100%. However, there is a very big difference between honestly trying to compensate for your biases and deliberately not trying.

It's like what I said about racism: It is probably impossible for humans to completely avoid mentally grouping people into stereotyped "other" categories. But that's not an excuse to throw in the towel. Addressing your own biases and prejudices is a lifelong effort. But it's a necessary and worthwhile effort -- that is, if you're curious about the universe, the world, and the people in it.

Exactly!!

You remember my usual reaction when people of faith start accusing atheism of being a "faith"-based belief or a "religion"?

Well, Jesus and Mo have now made the same point in comic form:



(Hat tip too many tribbles.)

Does it matter that prayer doesn't work?

If you believe that "The Lord will do His will" regardless of what you pray for, it's weird to imagine you'd see prayer as comforting. Yet weirdly it seems like it is.

Please read my new post about this over on Main Street Plaza: Does it matter that prayer doesn’t work?

It takes a lot of faith to believe that!!! redux!!!

By popular demand, I'm posing yesterday's question to you, the readers of this blog:

It takes a lot of faith to believe that!!!

It seems like I’ve been hearing this statement a lot lately, especially from religious people talking about atheism and/or evolution. Here are a few recent examples: here, here, here (you have to look around a bit for the relevant quote in a couple of them...)

The interesting thing isn’t what this says about the speaker’s opinion of atheism or evolution. The thing that’s striking is what it says about the speaker’s opinion of faith.

Have you heard people of faith say things like this? “Wow, you must have more faith than I do!” (thinking: because your belief is so much crazier than mine…) And if so, how do you feel about it?

To me, when someone thinks it’s absurd not to believe in God, and then says “It takes as much (or more) faith to believe God isn’t there than to believe He is,” it seems like the speaker is saying the following:

1. Your belief is no better than my belief because (like mine) yours is just faith.

2. Faith is believing in things you want to believe but are absurd and don’t follow from logic or observation. The more ridiculous the belief, the more it must be faith-based.

3. Faith is not at all trustworthy. It leads people to all sorts of wrong conclusions.

I would normally think that people of faith would see faith and/or spiritual witness as a completely different strategy for reaching a conclusion than tackling a question through analyzing objective evidence. I would guess that people who use both of these strategies (either together or to handle different types of questions) would still see them as distinct strategies, and perhaps see faith as the superior one.

On the other hand, maybe I just don’t understand how people of faith think…

Do you think faith is different from belief? Do you think that basing a conclusion on objective evidence or reasoning is different from basing a conclusion on spiritual witness? Am I right to think that that's the difference between faith and belief, or is it something else?

It takes a lot of faith to believe that!!!

How much faith does it take to believe in evolution? Or that there is no god?

Let's ask the feminist Mormon housewives!!!

Please keep in mind that it is very cool of them to be willing to host a civil discussion on this subject, so let's keep it that way. I assume it goes without saying that if anyone clicks from my blog to fMh and then makes trouble over there, I won't be happy about it...

Authentic faith-promoting anecdote for my LDS friends

This story was posted over on RfM by an authentic apostate (posting as "Hie/Goodbye to Kolob"), so I assume it is a true story. I'm copying it here because it made me laugh, and hopefully I won't accidentally strenghten anyone's testimony with it... ;-)

God punished me today for being a smart a** to the sister missionaries.

I saw two sister missionaries today crossing the street in Orem. I slowed down to wave them across. I rolled down my window and said with a smile on my face "You know, it's not true." They just turned their heads and walked off.

I drove off with this grin on my face. I reached down to grab my coffee and that damn plastic lid came loose and poured coffee on my shirt and crotch. Damn it!

(Sorry, I know I shouldn't be laughing at other people's misfortune, but I assume it was intended as a humorous story... :D)