April 20, 2020
Dear Subscriber:
Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of
view. The theme for this week is faith.
Proverbs on Faith
1. Faith is a choice; knowledge, an understanding.
2. The choice of faith can be made only outside the
boundaries of knowledge. So, for example, if one knows that one is six feet
tall, one need not choose to believe that one is six feet tall. Nor could one
reasonably choose to believe that one is five feet tall.
3. Similarly, if one knows that God exists, one need not
choose to believe that God exists. Just as if one knows that God does not
exist, one could not reasonably choose to believe that God exists.
4. The question of God's existence is, however, beyond the
boundaries of knowledge, and is therefore a fertile field for faith. For while science
may eventually discover the origin of our universe, it will never discover the
origin of being itself, the uncaused cause of which is a paradox that defies
reason.
5. The choice of faith ought to be made on moral or esthetic
grounds rather than on epistemological or metaphysical grounds. For
epistemology and metaphysics are concerned with knowledge, while one's
experience of goodness and beauty is affected by faith.
6. What, then, does it mean to say that one believes that
God exists? It means that although one cannot know whether God exists, one has
chosen to posit God's existence and act accordingly.
7. Since the choice of faith can always be unmade, in every
faith there must always be an element of doubt.
8. One chooses faith because of its effect on the quality of
one's life, and on the quality of the lives of those around one.
9. In its social manifestations, faith provides a rich
tradition of rites and practices that bind people together in ways that reason
and knowledge cannot. This is why even some who do not choose faith choose to
practice faith's rituals at various turning points in their lives.
10. There is room for faith in even the most rational of
societies, not as a substitute for knowledge, nor even as an additional way of
knowing, but as something altogether different from knowledge, as ordinary
movement differs from dance.
© by Nicholas Gordon
This week’s theme: Faith
