Faith versus Evidence

Throughout history, religion has been a very influential force upon human society, for better or worse. Most people throughout the world have some degree of religious faith, but there is also a significant and growing number of nonreligious people throughout the world. In recent years, several popular and influential writers, including the so-called “New Atheism” movement, have argued that religious faith is unjustified, outdated, and harmful to individuals and to society as a whole. They point to the holy wars that have been waged and the senseless terrorist attacks that have been carried out in the name of religion by fanatical believers as evidence that religion is, in general, unjust and immoral.

Many religious believers have attempted to counter these allegations by proclaiming that their own faith promotes peace and brotherhood with all humanity and that through their faith they are able to find a sense of spirituality, a basis for morality, ultimate explanation for the universe, and meaning in life.

It appears that those who have attempted to blame religion for the world’s ills have gone too far. This may be true, but the fact remains that religious faith does often lead to unnecessary suffering and death. Now, the word “faith” has several different meanings depending on the context. “Faith” sometimes refers to an ongoing relationship between people where each party has certain obligations to the other and to break such obligations is therefore said to be “unfaithful”. Faith may also refer to certain types of community involvement or rituals. Many religious believers have these two meanings of “faith” as part of their worship and religious life. There is certainly much virtue and personal fulfillment in practicing faith as so defined. This sort of faith is not at all the problem.

The problem is another understanding of faith. This is also known as blind faith. This is where people believe in things despite the lack of reliable evidence. What is even worse than this is that, far too often, people even believe things despite the existence of clear counterevidence. Most often, people take things on blind faith because they were told this when they were too young to know any better. The problem is that people who have blind faith often believe things that are harmful to themselves and to others. This includes Christians who believe that going to war against infidels is the will of God. This includes fanatical Muslims who believe that blowing themselves up in order to kill innocent people will bring them paradise. This includes zealous Jews who believe that it is God’s will for the nation of Israel to expand its borders at the expense of the Palestinians because of something written in the Bible. There are many other things that are taken as truth on blind faith by millions and millions of followers that can also be harmful beliefs, though often the harmful effects are not clearly seen.

For those who believe that the Bible is the word of God and that Jesus is the son of God and that all people must believe that he is their personal lord and savior in order to achieve salvation,

For those who believe that Mohamed was the messenger of God and that the Qur’an is the infallible word of God,

For those who believe that Jews are Gods chosen people and that the Torah is the infallible word of God,

I ask you all: Why do you believe this? There is no evidence at all that this is the case. This is simply something false that you were told to believe at a time when you didn’t know any better. These beliefs are subtly harmful to you though you do not realize it. You take these to be true despite the lack of evidence, and you ignore the evidence to the contrary that should be evident to you from daily life. If you were to use your eyes and ears to pay attention to reality, you will see that the universe does not work this way. The Bible was written by people and has much falsehood. Jesus was no more or less than a human being. He has never had any privileged status in the eyes of God. It is not necessary for people to believe in him for salvation. Mohamed was a false prophet who convinced many foolish people to believe he was the messenger of God, often through violence. The Qur’an was written by people and is mostly a fabrication with the occasional historical fact. There is no book in the world that is the word of God. God has no chosen people and never did.

If you realize this, you can become free of the negative effects of blind faith. You can also come to realize that much of what you previously held as true despite the lack of evidence actually may in fact turn out to be true on the basis of evidence. This includes the existence of a higher power that can be called God. So you see, blind faith is not only harmful, it is unnecessary to understand reality.

The quest to understand the reality of God, spirituality, and morality on the basis of observation and reason, as opposed to blind faith, is one of the main themes of the forthcoming book Seeking a More Enlightened Worldview, which this website was created to promote. We need your support to get this book to publication. But giving your support is easy – all you need to do is let your voice be heard. You can email the author at brandon@enlightenedworldview.com or you can visit the forum and discuss many important and fascinating issues with the author and with other visitors to this website.