One of the takeaway moments I had from watching Bill Mahr’s RELIGILOUS documentary recently was quite near the start when he asked what I think is a fundamental question that everyone should be considering …
WHY IS FAITH A GOOD THING?
Faith, even amongst the not-particularly religious, is seen as a positive thing, something to be admired and respected, something to strive towards – whether that’s faith in your God, faith that your book will one day become published or faith that your partner will remain true to you. But why should that be? Faith, to me, is a neccessary scaffold to fill in the gaps between one or more truths. It exists because it has to, not because it should.
In the past, people have had faith that their crops will not fail if only they sacrifice animals or pray a certain number of times in a certain way because they didn’t have the knowledge and understanding to recognise that ensuring your crops don’t fail really relies on whether and other variables. They have had faith that God will look after them if they behave in a certain way because it gives them comfort without which they may end up feeling lost and scared. But I think it’s fundamental that we realise that as soon as we can get rid of that faith we should. It provided a support for us when we needed it but once we know longer need it, it instead holds us back.
Imagine walking through a darkened tunnel. You don’t know what’s in there but you can see the exit a hundred yards up ahead and if you can make it there you’ll be safe. There might be holes in the ground, there might be animals, there might be expxlosives set to go off should you step on them. If we had no way of dealing with this fear of the unknown we would be frozen in place and not able to do anything so if we have faith that we’re going to make it if only we whistle as we walk or repeat a single word over and over then at least it allows us to get to the exit. But say instead we had a torch that could illuminate the tunnel and show us if there are traps or animals to be avoided. We would therefore have no need to have faith any more because we could know if there are dangers or not – even if there are traps we can see them and avoid them now. So what would be the point in continuing to chant or whistle? And more importantly, the fact is that whistling or chanting probably wouldn’t do a thing to protect us from either bombs or animals – so although it might bring us comfort, once we realise it has no effect it is in fact damaging to continue to belief it will help as it could mean that we’d step onto a bomb and be blown up.
Faith is a neccessary evil that should only be relied upon when there is nothing else. As soon as it can be discarded, it should be. There’s no doubt it’s assisted us in getting us to where we are today (at least in part) but I really do think that we’re getting to a point where the promise and approach of science, of reason, is such a better option for us that we should drop faith whenever and wherever we can. It should be seen as the neccessary evil I think it is and not as something to aspire to or respect.
I stopped reading at “whether”. You should proofread.
Well if the only response you’ve got is to complain about my grammar then at least I know I’m on the right tracks with the content of the post