Faith and selfishness

    To begin, let’s distinguish self-care and selfishness. Self-care is a necessary aspect of our existence, self-care becomes selfishness when our wellbeing comes without concern for the values of others. We can recognize that we are just one part of a larger whole, or in the more eloquent language of Brian Miller: “our world is a shared experience, fractured by individual perspectives”. Human beings have inherent value, to ignore this is void of virtue and ignores the Truth.

     There is insightful research indicating a strong correlation between religiosity and selfishness (Cell, 2015).  This research indicates that children from non-religious households were more altruistic with an anonymous beneficiary than children from religious households. This insight is contrary to the religious narrative that god is the objective moral standard, and therefore without a god we cannot possibly know what is right and what is wrong. This assertion leads to the widespread belief that atheists are morally suspect and untrustworthy. This can be a frustrating aspect for atheists as belief in a god is not indicative of upright moral character. Although it logically follows that an objective standard is necessary consistently determine right and wrong, it is not logical that god is this objective standard. There has yet to be any actual evidence for the existence of god. As such, god is perpetually found not-guilty for the crime of existence.

     One of the most selfish tendencies is the belief that the local religion we were born into (at the precise time in history that we were born) provides us knowledge of the one True god. It is very hard to describe how phenomenally selfish this belief is. To address this, some theists will claim that all gods are actually the same. It is not possible that all gods are the same as their own definitions make them mutually exclusive. This magnificent selfish tendency stems from faith: believing ideas to be True without evidence or contrary to the actual evidence. Faith is clearly not a reliable path to Truth. Without verifiably knowing what is True to begin with, we cannot make a consistent moral decision. This is why Truth is our objective moral standard. In conclusion, not being responsible with the Truth is by definition immoral, tantamount to faith, and typically indicative of selfish behavior.

    The philosopher Daniel Dennett has an especially pertinent quote: “The secret to happiness: find something larger than you are and dedicate your life to it”. Hopefully we can recognize that our shared humanity is very much larger than we are. 

Why does Truth matter? an allegory

     Let's imagine the following allegory: 

     Two laboratories exist that currently cannot communicate with one another. Both labs perform research on the same vitamin and have their own respective patients. The vitamin has the same impact on all patients and the impact has always been the same. Additionally, all patients and both labs currently believe that the vitamin has a positive health benefit. With this in place, let’s now imagine that lab #1 discovers evidence that the vitamin actually causes cancer. Lab #2 and their patients are not yet aware of this knowledge. 

     From the perspective of lab #1, we (hopefully) agree that it is now an immoral act to provide the vitamin to their patients (we can assume that none of the patients want cancer). If the vitamins were prescribed to the patients anyway, we would (hopefully) consider this action unethical (immoral). 

     From the perspective of lab #2 (which has no knowledge of the cancer causing issue), we agree that prescribing the vitamins is still a moral act despite the fact that all of these patients will still get cancer. We recognize that the objective moral standard in each scenario is the awareness of knowledge (the available Truth). This is why Truth matters.

     At this point in the story, we have lab #1 no longer prescribing vitamins while lab #2 continues to prescribe the vitamins to their own set of patients. Every action in this allegory was moral despite the very different impacts on wellbeing. 

     From our perspective (as the omniscient reader) we can (hopefully) see a very different side to this story. We can understand how knowledge of Truth is required before a moral decision can be made. Furthermore, we understand the incredible importance of accurate (True) information within a society. We can also imagine the damgage of widespread false belief. Simply put, as our knowledge increases, so also does our ability to undertand moral decisions. If our goal is to reduce harm, then believing in True things is critical in doing so. 

     Faith is not a path to Truth. Faith is synonymous with gullibility. In our current world, 1000’s of faiths exist across the world. All faiths cannot be True. All faiths can be false. 

    Final test question: is there a moral obligation to share this knowledge with those who are currently unaware of the harm? 

(illusration produced by non-existent art team)

Faith is neither scientific nor ubiquitous

     Faith in a particular god (or God or GOD) is tantamount to many religious beliefs. The bible most notably defines faith in Hebrews 11 (NIV): 

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.  

     In addition to this, many theologians and modern christian apologists (professional defenders of religion) have (re)defined faith in the following way: "the remaining bit of confidence for a belief when evidence doesn’t provide 100% certainty.". In doing so, modern apologists have seemingly accomplished a major goal of making faith an integral part of non-religious beliefs as well.  The idea of faith is now synonymous with a ubiquitous scientific concept: “confidence”. As we recognize, only deductive claims (that are both sound and valid) can be known with 100% certainty. All scientific claims are known with something less than 100% certainty (albeit 99.999999999999+%) due to the requirement of evidential falsifiability. Because of this fact, the apologist can now assert that faith is integral aspect of science itself. 

     To many this may feel like a frustrating “checkmate” position as this massive “movement of the goalposts” actually seems to be reasonable. In reality, this doesn’t present a problem whatsoever as the simple question remains:

What is the actual evidence for the god belief? 

     No matter how much confidence (or this newly redefined faith) we have in a belief, our beliefs cannot be rationally considered as Truth unless there is actual evidence to support the claim. In other words, no matter how faith is defined, Truth requires evidence. 

Food for thought - an interesting quote

My first post: an open letter to the faithful

Hello Friends,

     To summarize my thoughts and emotions in brief: I love you guys, but I am afraid that we are very lost. It is tremendously clear to me that reason and rational thought are the best way to solve problems as we navigate through Reality. We also recognize that we require an understanding of Truth before we can make a moral decision. Yet, for many of us, we will voluntarily dismiss these tools of rational thought when we actually encounter a problem. Even worse, we celebrate this dismissal and have given it a revered title: “faith”. Faith is believing in something without evidence. Many of us may use faith to find escape in an otherwise inescapable situation. I understand this. What I do not understand, is why we have prioritized faith outside of these scenarios? Why do we desire and promote faith in our schools, government, and our daily lives? Why do we desire faith in our friends and family? Together, we can solve today’s problems so they do not exist for us tomorrow. The ability to solve these problems is where our genuine wellbeing rests. We exist in a shared experience. We desperately need one another.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities ” - Voltaire, 17th century philosopher

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer”

-Stevie Wonder, 21st century musician

If I am wrong, then please let me know why I am wrong. I am desperately trying to reconnect with you all.  I am very open to being corrected. Why do we continue to believe in things for which there is no evidence? Why do we continue to believe in things that we don’t understand?

Much love