Monday, July 18, 2011

Why I Lack A Coherent Worldview (Part 3: Of Faith)

Theists often accuse atheists of relying faith in holding commonsense beliefs (e.g., the world is not flat, science is generally reliable, other people exist, etc.). Atheists respond by noting that the previous argument suffers from the tu quoque (or two wrongs) fallacy. Of course, they're both correct.

On one hand, beliefs about the empirical world ultimately depend on assumptions. On the other hand, there's no non-circular reason to favor some assumptions over other assumptions, rendering whatever conclusions one has arbitrary.

You can't question everything as a practical matter. If a child asks you why the sky's blue, then questions each of your answers, then what are you left with? If you re-trace your reasoning from conclusions to premises, you find a set of assumptions that you cannot defend or suffer circular reasoning. Doubt favors thinking over acting; faith favors acting over thinking.

Even science and commonsense mostly depend on faith:
There's no strong evidence you're not dreaming--lucid dreams occur. Nor is there much evidence other minds exist. The most serious example of faith in science is our trust in induction. Our acceptance of induction is an example of pragmatic faith. Philosopher Hans Reichenbach argues that induction is our best chance of forming reliable conclusions of the empirical world since induction will yield reliable conclusions if the universe is uniform, but no method will be reliable if the universe isn't uniform.

Almost all, if not all, faith is pragmatic, and not necessarily by serving the same goals. Religious faith helps people cope with hard times, optimism can motivate people, and faith in empiricism and induction offers a chance of forming true conclusions of the external world.

You can't avoid using faith even if logical axioms are self-evidently true. The only question is at what point in your reasoning you choose to apply faith. Like logic and observation, faith is another necessary tool for forming reliable conclusions.

If someone accepts an internally consistent position on faith, then no debate is possible.

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