by jimwalton » Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:06 pm
This is such an odd and loaded question. It's like, "Which is a higher value to you, breathing or living?" Well, you can't keep living if you're not breathing, and you can't keep living if you're not breathing. But you want to force me to choose between two, as you say, perfectly aligned concepts.
But you think you clarified that it's a choice between faith and truth-seeking, but that's also a false dilemma, since faith is making an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make that assumption reasonable. In other words, I believe because it has been substantiated as true.
A third qualifier to your tricky dilemma is that knowledge has at least four components to it: reason, evidence, presuppositions, and experience.
With all of those as conditions to my answer, if you're going to force me to pick one, I would say that the honest search for truth is paramount. If we're not looking for truth, we're deluding ourselves. I ground my reason, presuppositions, observations, and experiences, and therefore my beliefs, in a determined quest for what is true.
I should hope that you understand that "belief" (faith) is even variously defined:
1. Faith is "complete trust or confidence in someone or something," like sitting in a chair, or that an employee will do his job well.
2. Faith is "firm belief in something for which there is no proof," like dark matter.
3. Faith is "belief in, trust in, and loyalty to God," based on presuppositions, reason, and evidence.
4. Faith is "a system of religious beliefs," like the Jewish faith or the Christian faith.
I define faith, as I already mentioned, as making an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make that assumption reasonable. Therefore the question for truth and my ultimately belief are mutually contingent parallel tracks. Christianity is nothing like valuing belief over truth seeking.
This is such an odd and loaded question. It's like, "Which is a higher value to you, breathing or living?" Well, you can't keep living if you're not breathing, and you can't keep living if you're not breathing. But you want to force me to choose between two, as you say, perfectly aligned concepts.
But you think you clarified that it's a choice between faith and truth-seeking, but that's also a false dilemma, since faith is making an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make that assumption reasonable. In other words, I believe because it has been substantiated as true.
A third qualifier to your tricky dilemma is that knowledge has at least four components to it: reason, evidence, presuppositions, and experience.
With all of those as conditions to my answer, if you're going to force me to pick one, I would say that the honest search for truth is paramount. If we're not looking for truth, we're deluding ourselves. I ground my reason, presuppositions, observations, and experiences, and therefore my beliefs, in a determined quest for what is true.
I should hope that you understand that "belief" (faith) is even variously defined:
1. Faith is "complete trust or confidence in someone or something," like sitting in a chair, or that an employee will do his job well.
2. Faith is "firm belief in something for which there is no proof," like dark matter.
3. Faith is "belief in, trust in, and loyalty to God," based on presuppositions, reason, and evidence.
4. Faith is "a system of religious beliefs," like the Jewish faith or the Christian faith.
I define faith, as I already mentioned, as making an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make that assumption reasonable. Therefore the question for truth and my ultimately belief are mutually contingent parallel tracks. Christianity is nothing like valuing belief over truth seeking.