Perceiving reality requires no effort: reality becomes apparent whenever it is encountered. It is ubiquitous – reality never doesn’t exist, even when it is ignored. Reality is the thick end of the wedge.
Faith is the practice of expecting an outcome without a basis in precedent, evidence, or logic. Faith necessitates will: when practicing faith, one must will oneself to believe in an outcome, without indication that the anticipated outcome has any reasonable chance to occur. What is reasonable is what is probable. The probability of an outcome increases as unfolding events accumulate toward the outcome. As more evidence comes into play, the likelihood of a particular outcome becomes more certain. Faith requires a suspension of reason; a baseless certainty that an outcome will happen, against the overwhelming certainty of another more likely, or even, opposite outcome than the one hoped for. Faith is the thin end – the ultra-thin end of the wedge.
Belief in the existence of gods, deities or other supernatural persons or phenomena is an act of faith. Legends passed down through the centuries, from religions that were, themselves, based upon even older legends, which continue to the present day, owing to nothing more substantial than the “word” of ancients, whose sobriety (and judgment) cannot be verified, can only be believed through the practice of faith, as the contradictions such legends have with logic otherwise preclude their practice.
Neither does mere antiquity confer validity, nor does mere novelty preclude it: it has almost certainly always been true that humans with ambition and a deficit of conscience will perpetrate a fraud in service of said ambition. Despite advances in the human condition, physically, intellectually, technologically, or otherwise, such behavior is as present as ever. There is no basis for concluding that the “ancients” were any more honorable than people today. Indeed, it is likely, considering behaviors that have, over time, gone out of favor, such as torture, slavery, etc., that the “ancients” were less honorable than people today, who are more enlightened. Considering, too, that, in examining mankinds’ history, there is a perceptible trajectory from ignorance toward enlightenment, it is as likely that people will, in the future, be even more enlightened, as it is to believe that, were one to travel backward in time, he would encounter greater ignorance. It simply makes less sense to base ones views on the comparative ignorance of the “ancients”, than to use reason for the betterment of mankind.
The thick end of the wedge is readily apparent; the thin end tapers off into nothingness, the only end of the wedge where faith is comfortable.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Faith: Abject Willfulness Defined
Faith: Abject Willfulness Defined
If not for the inventions of god and religion, all human beings would be Atheists: absent indoctrination with religion, Atheism would be the default state of mind.
Atheism is, essentially, disbelief in, or refutation of, supernatural entities or gods. In its contemporary manifestation, however, it serves as a vehicle for resetting the mind to its default (pre-religion) state, by conquering the fallacies of religion through rational discourse, thereby freeing erstwhile indoctrinated individuals to proceed with living lives that allow for, among other things, reflection and analysis, with a fullness that is not possible for those controlled by religion. It is because of religion that Atheism even has a name or is a cause: Atheism has, by necessity, had to transform itself from the passive version that would be in use if religion did not exist, to an active form, taking on the role of a corrective device, against the imposition of religious falsehoods.
Consider: the mind of a child is, by nature, curious and hungry for facts. The concepts of religion and god are invariably introduced when children are very young, before their reasoning abilities are advanced enough to question such matters. This is done to stifle inquiry that could lead to dissent, as dissent is inimical to perpetuating the hierarchy of falsehoods through which religious “leaders” keep their followers unquestioningly subservient. Handicapping such a developing mind with religion is seen by Atheists as constituting a crime against intellectual development; veritably, an act of “treason against reason”.
It is not Atheism, however, but faith, that requires discipline, as facts, to which Atheists are devoted, need no coaching, whereas faith requires constant buttressing, lest it disintegrate. Faith, in fact, requires tremendous discipline, on a magnitude of epic proportions, in that, in order to practice faith, one must actively choose to refute the very facts that, in aggregate, are the basis of rational, and repeatedly provable, conclusions. Faith is, by definition, a willful ignorance of facts; a delusion, whereby one allows himself to expect a preferred outcome, on the basis of nothing more than having convinced oneself that a supernatural agent will ensure this outcome. When religion is practiced over the course of a lifetime, he who does so cannot have any real understanding of himself; he is at the mercy of whatever the orthodoxy allows.
Rational thought is based upon assembling facts into conclusions, which can, if necessary, be “reverse engineered”, to examine each step in a given thought process, to confirm its respective validity. There is no thought process involved in practicing faith, which is, in essence, belief without supporting facts. Therefore, when a person “of faith”, in an encounter with an Atheist, demands “proof” for the Atheists’ assertions, he is asking for things outside of, and, not condoned by religion, as the person “of faith” lives entirely without deference to proof.
Some people apparently regard faith as a heroic act, by dint of the enormous will required to sustain it. They believe that their faith is confirmed when, even after decades of waiting, a small morsel of success is achieved, without considering that said success failed completely before then. However much effort is necessary to blockade the truth, doing so is in no way admirable. That the “faithful” never abandon faith, even when faith invariably fails to accomplish what is desired, is utterly incomprehensible.
If not for the inventions of god and religion, all human beings would be Atheists: absent indoctrination with religion, Atheism would be the default state of mind.
Atheism is, essentially, disbelief in, or refutation of, supernatural entities or gods. In its contemporary manifestation, however, it serves as a vehicle for resetting the mind to its default (pre-religion) state, by conquering the fallacies of religion through rational discourse, thereby freeing erstwhile indoctrinated individuals to proceed with living lives that allow for, among other things, reflection and analysis, with a fullness that is not possible for those controlled by religion. It is because of religion that Atheism even has a name or is a cause: Atheism has, by necessity, had to transform itself from the passive version that would be in use if religion did not exist, to an active form, taking on the role of a corrective device, against the imposition of religious falsehoods.
Consider: the mind of a child is, by nature, curious and hungry for facts. The concepts of religion and god are invariably introduced when children are very young, before their reasoning abilities are advanced enough to question such matters. This is done to stifle inquiry that could lead to dissent, as dissent is inimical to perpetuating the hierarchy of falsehoods through which religious “leaders” keep their followers unquestioningly subservient. Handicapping such a developing mind with religion is seen by Atheists as constituting a crime against intellectual development; veritably, an act of “treason against reason”.
It is not Atheism, however, but faith, that requires discipline, as facts, to which Atheists are devoted, need no coaching, whereas faith requires constant buttressing, lest it disintegrate. Faith, in fact, requires tremendous discipline, on a magnitude of epic proportions, in that, in order to practice faith, one must actively choose to refute the very facts that, in aggregate, are the basis of rational, and repeatedly provable, conclusions. Faith is, by definition, a willful ignorance of facts; a delusion, whereby one allows himself to expect a preferred outcome, on the basis of nothing more than having convinced oneself that a supernatural agent will ensure this outcome. When religion is practiced over the course of a lifetime, he who does so cannot have any real understanding of himself; he is at the mercy of whatever the orthodoxy allows.
Rational thought is based upon assembling facts into conclusions, which can, if necessary, be “reverse engineered”, to examine each step in a given thought process, to confirm its respective validity. There is no thought process involved in practicing faith, which is, in essence, belief without supporting facts. Therefore, when a person “of faith”, in an encounter with an Atheist, demands “proof” for the Atheists’ assertions, he is asking for things outside of, and, not condoned by religion, as the person “of faith” lives entirely without deference to proof.
Some people apparently regard faith as a heroic act, by dint of the enormous will required to sustain it. They believe that their faith is confirmed when, even after decades of waiting, a small morsel of success is achieved, without considering that said success failed completely before then. However much effort is necessary to blockade the truth, doing so is in no way admirable. That the “faithful” never abandon faith, even when faith invariably fails to accomplish what is desired, is utterly incomprehensible.
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