It is a sad thing to say - but in its own way, faith promotes ignorance.
By definition, faith is belief without knowledge or question, and so many of the most 'faithful' people are also sadly the least knowledgeable.
I mean, don't get me wrong - I used to enjoy going to church regularly and I sang in the choir. I believed wholeheartedly in God. Jesus Christ is a pretty awesome dude in concept.
But really, is Jesus going to solve the world's problems? or are we, we who have the brains to do so, brains ostensibly given to us by God? Knowledge of the Bible has its uses, but not in any pure scientific sense.
Think about it: so-called knowledge of the Bible is one of the major contributing factors of the Dark Ages, which set us back hundreds of years in scientific development. The Bible was used as justification for the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and the oppression of women.
I've found that some people who know the Bible cover-to-cover are sometimes incapable of using plain (God-given) logic, and seem to only speak in Bible verses. (I'm sorry, did someone say "brainwashing"? Oh ... that was me? ... I'm sorry! Never mind then.)
All the faith in the world isn't going to do squat if you know nothing.
Think about it.
- Faith didn't put astronauts on the moon - scientists and engineers did. Faith doesn't power your car and fly our planes - physics does.
- Faith doesn't make your computer (or your refrigerator or microwave or anything in any modern construction or contraption) work - electricity does.
- Faith isn't going to save an ill or injured person - a doctor, however, stands a chance of doing so.
-Faith does nothing (yes, I said nothing) to assuage world hunger and/or poverty, or to secure world peace - visionaries, revolutionaries, and good people (of every religion!) work to do so.
A final, more engaging example, for posterity:
- Faith isn't going to do your work for you or make you pass any evaluations or examinations anywhere, anytime, or anyhow. Why? Because if you don't know anything worth applying, faith isn't worth a pair of dingo's kidneys*. Try passing your exam, driving your car, or saving impoverished children by spouting Bible verses, see if that works.
All of this, why? Because that's what I have come to see all around me. And I can't simply ignore it because while ignorance is, in many ways, bliss, it is in equally many ways foolhardy.
___________________
*Courtesy: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 1, Chapter 1, for the phrase "a pair of dingo's kidneys"
And now for the part where I seemingly contradict myself or appear to present a paradox for no reason whatsoever:
For all that, faith is in fact an integral part of the human psyche.
- The astronauts in the Space Shuttle had to have faith that the scientists and engineers had done their job right.
- You take it on faith that your car is built to specifications and performs as advertised without breaking down; you take it on faith that a plane doesn't break up in the air.
- You take it on faith that your computer will not fizzle out or melt down as you turn it on or plug it in.
- A patient in a hospital has faith that he is in the care of medical personnel who know what they are doing. (Every time you take a pill or a swig of medicine or an injection ... can you honestly say you know what is going to happen? Thanks to allergies/pre-existing conditions/etc., sometimes even doctors don't know. Think about that.)
- All the impoverished communities in the world can only have faith that they will find or receive aid or nutrition, because there is no way for them to know. The only people who know are the ones who supply it, and sadly supplies are far from unlimited.
- You can only know what you know ... but you can only take it on faith that the person(s) evaluating your work knows more than you do on that particular subject. For example, it is not unheard of for underhanded and/or undermanned higher-education centers to outsource the grading of graduation tests. Do you know that your final high-school exit exam wasn't graded by some homeless person off the streets? And if it was, do you know whether that person is uneducated? There are homeless people with PhDs all over the world!
My eventual point, if ever there was one, is this:
It is essentially willful ignorance to take everything you see, or hear about, on faith. You should only do so for things that are beyond your discernment - for example, you can only take it on faith that you won't be vaporized by a meteorite as you walk into a building. Do you know? If yes, it is safe to say you're flat-out lying.
I will not simply take it on faith that a car can 'automagically' drive; I know, beyond reasonable doubt, how cars work. I don't have to have faith that aeroplanes can fly; I know the physics of flight (however, again, I must take it on faith that the person in the pilot's chair knows what he/she is doing, and so on and so forth). I know the basics of how computers work, and I am actively learning more about them; therefore I need not even take faith in them, because what I don't already know about them I will learn.
Therefore, the idea I wish you, the reader, to learn from my thoughts is that you should only take faith in what you are incapable of understanding. You should be actively learning about all that you can, because all that you do not know will be explained to you; and your horizons of understanding will increase, allowing you to take in more knowledge, which gives you more understanding, leaving room for more knowledge ... and forever on. In this vein, even what you once thought incomprehensible would become a matter of learning.
Creationism, as a basic example of pure faith, is nothing but taking the words of people dead for a few thousand years and attempting to explain the whole observable Universe by those words, rather than using the brains given by God to understand and learn about said Universe.
Most scientific theories of creation essentially say exactly what creationism says - only in a realistic, scientific manner, and the fact that we have so many different theories is not proof of fallacy, but rather proof that science is willing to actively search out the true answers until the right one is found. Why do Creationists stick to pure faith? One of two possibilities: either they are incapable of understanding - or else they voluntarily choose not to seek out/accept the knowledge they know exists. Either way it's hard not to feel sorry for them.
I hope I have made a strong case for my ideas; here's a P.S., as it were:
The truth does not require belief. You could ignore every word I've just written, and it would make no difference to the world (or, indeed, the universe). You could choose to call gravity a lie; would still continue to function. You could censor every book on nuclear fusion in the world, and it would still be the source of energy in the Sun's core. You could burn every Bible in existence; and God would still continue to exist. You could call down curses upon every proponent of evolution before or since Darwin; it doesn't change the fact that we are highly-evolved primates.
You could call the Earth the center of the Universe; it will not change the fact that we are one planet out of nine (yes, I said nine!), orbiting a single star out of a hundred billion in our galaxy, which is one of thirty or so such galaxies in the Local Cluster, which is one of hundreds of clusters in the Virgo Supercluster, which is one supercluster out of millions in the observable Universe.
If that doesn't make you feel insignificant, nothing will.
-------------------------------------------------------
As I've heard it said: "If you ain't pissin' somebody off, you ain't doin' it right."
_____________________________________________
Gosh, it feels good to express myself. Don't you think so?
By definition, faith is belief without knowledge or question, and so many of the most 'faithful' people are also sadly the least knowledgeable.
I mean, don't get me wrong - I used to enjoy going to church regularly and I sang in the choir. I believed wholeheartedly in God. Jesus Christ is a pretty awesome dude in concept.
But really, is Jesus going to solve the world's problems? or are we, we who have the brains to do so, brains ostensibly given to us by God? Knowledge of the Bible has its uses, but not in any pure scientific sense.
Think about it: so-called knowledge of the Bible is one of the major contributing factors of the Dark Ages, which set us back hundreds of years in scientific development. The Bible was used as justification for the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and the oppression of women.
I've found that some people who know the Bible cover-to-cover are sometimes incapable of using plain (God-given) logic, and seem to only speak in Bible verses. (I'm sorry, did someone say "brainwashing"? Oh ... that was me? ... I'm sorry! Never mind then.)
All the faith in the world isn't going to do squat if you know nothing.
Think about it.
- Faith didn't put astronauts on the moon - scientists and engineers did. Faith doesn't power your car and fly our planes - physics does.
- Faith doesn't make your computer (or your refrigerator or microwave or anything in any modern construction or contraption) work - electricity does.
- Faith isn't going to save an ill or injured person - a doctor, however, stands a chance of doing so.
-Faith does nothing (yes, I said nothing) to assuage world hunger and/or poverty, or to secure world peace - visionaries, revolutionaries, and good people (of every religion!) work to do so.
A final, more engaging example, for posterity:
- Faith isn't going to do your work for you or make you pass any evaluations or examinations anywhere, anytime, or anyhow. Why? Because if you don't know anything worth applying, faith isn't worth a pair of dingo's kidneys*. Try passing your exam, driving your car, or saving impoverished children by spouting Bible verses, see if that works.
All of this, why? Because that's what I have come to see all around me. And I can't simply ignore it because while ignorance is, in many ways, bliss, it is in equally many ways foolhardy.
___________________
*Courtesy: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 1, Chapter 1, for the phrase "a pair of dingo's kidneys"
And now for the part where I seemingly contradict myself or appear to present a paradox for no reason whatsoever:
For all that, faith is in fact an integral part of the human psyche.
- The astronauts in the Space Shuttle had to have faith that the scientists and engineers had done their job right.
- You take it on faith that your car is built to specifications and performs as advertised without breaking down; you take it on faith that a plane doesn't break up in the air.
- You take it on faith that your computer will not fizzle out or melt down as you turn it on or plug it in.
- A patient in a hospital has faith that he is in the care of medical personnel who know what they are doing. (Every time you take a pill or a swig of medicine or an injection ... can you honestly say you know what is going to happen? Thanks to allergies/pre-existing conditions/etc., sometimes even doctors don't know. Think about that.)
- All the impoverished communities in the world can only have faith that they will find or receive aid or nutrition, because there is no way for them to know. The only people who know are the ones who supply it, and sadly supplies are far from unlimited.
- You can only know what you know ... but you can only take it on faith that the person(s) evaluating your work knows more than you do on that particular subject. For example, it is not unheard of for underhanded and/or undermanned higher-education centers to outsource the grading of graduation tests. Do you know that your final high-school exit exam wasn't graded by some homeless person off the streets? And if it was, do you know whether that person is uneducated? There are homeless people with PhDs all over the world!
My eventual point, if ever there was one, is this:
It is essentially willful ignorance to take everything you see, or hear about, on faith. You should only do so for things that are beyond your discernment - for example, you can only take it on faith that you won't be vaporized by a meteorite as you walk into a building. Do you know? If yes, it is safe to say you're flat-out lying.
I will not simply take it on faith that a car can 'automagically' drive; I know, beyond reasonable doubt, how cars work. I don't have to have faith that aeroplanes can fly; I know the physics of flight (however, again, I must take it on faith that the person in the pilot's chair knows what he/she is doing, and so on and so forth). I know the basics of how computers work, and I am actively learning more about them; therefore I need not even take faith in them, because what I don't already know about them I will learn.
Therefore, the idea I wish you, the reader, to learn from my thoughts is that you should only take faith in what you are incapable of understanding. You should be actively learning about all that you can, because all that you do not know will be explained to you; and your horizons of understanding will increase, allowing you to take in more knowledge, which gives you more understanding, leaving room for more knowledge ... and forever on. In this vein, even what you once thought incomprehensible would become a matter of learning.
Creationism, as a basic example of pure faith, is nothing but taking the words of people dead for a few thousand years and attempting to explain the whole observable Universe by those words, rather than using the brains given by God to understand and learn about said Universe.
Most scientific theories of creation essentially say exactly what creationism says - only in a realistic, scientific manner, and the fact that we have so many different theories is not proof of fallacy, but rather proof that science is willing to actively search out the true answers until the right one is found. Why do Creationists stick to pure faith? One of two possibilities: either they are incapable of understanding - or else they voluntarily choose not to seek out/accept the knowledge they know exists. Either way it's hard not to feel sorry for them.
I hope I have made a strong case for my ideas; here's a P.S., as it were:
The truth does not require belief. You could ignore every word I've just written, and it would make no difference to the world (or, indeed, the universe). You could choose to call gravity a lie; would still continue to function. You could censor every book on nuclear fusion in the world, and it would still be the source of energy in the Sun's core. You could burn every Bible in existence; and God would still continue to exist. You could call down curses upon every proponent of evolution before or since Darwin; it doesn't change the fact that we are highly-evolved primates.
You could call the Earth the center of the Universe; it will not change the fact that we are one planet out of nine (yes, I said nine!), orbiting a single star out of a hundred billion in our galaxy, which is one of thirty or so such galaxies in the Local Cluster, which is one of hundreds of clusters in the Virgo Supercluster, which is one supercluster out of millions in the observable Universe.
If that doesn't make you feel insignificant, nothing will.
-------------------------------------------------------
As I've heard it said: "If you ain't pissin' somebody off, you ain't doin' it right."
_____________________________________________
Gosh, it feels good to express myself. Don't you think so?
