contact@onbelief.orgFaith
Is Science a Matter of Faith ?
During the Glasgow Science festival of 2007 Prof. Roger Downie, when talking about evolution deniers, said "Not even the most eminent evolutionary biologist should believe in (biological) evolution. ...... Science is not a matter of belief." It is safe to presume that he meant 'believe without repeatable observations of a systematic nature'. He was possibly describing the sort of belief by faith that characterises many if not all religions and some political philosophies. In addition he was probably making an attempt to distinguish the scientific method from the pursuit of other belief systems that seek to enhance the human condition through custom, practice and tradition: in other words and from the scientitifc perspective uncontrolled experiment.
My immediate response was to ask myself that if we are not to 'believe in' evolution what are we to 'believe in'? Evolution is, in it various forms, the central dogma of cosmology, geology, biology and also provides some understanding of human culture. Being an impressionable kind of person I then began the forerunner of this web site which was entitled "A Manifesto for Non-Belief" which then mutated in to "A Manifesto for Change of Belief". However, as I began to explore the philosophy of belief and the nature of our 'cultural truths' it became obvious that it makes little sense philosophically to distinguish scientific and other belief systems at a more profound level. Human ideas are simply artifacts of the human brain regardless of their inspiration. Wherever possible we should apply tests of belief (discussed at length on other pages). However, a degree of 'faith' is often required as the evidence for many important beliefs that we have will remain incomplete or nonexistent regardless of the importance we place up them. Even within the realm of moral thinking faith has its place because we often choose to rationalise our ethical ideas following observation of the world.
Faith has of course a much more important role to play. Provisional faiths along with instincts are the motivational drives for our lifelong experiments. They shape the way that we decide to live. They are the instruments of our education and form the constraints of our culture.
Some common definitions
More than one respondent to this site has argued that faith appears to have a variety of meanings even for different people within the same community. On this site faith is regarded as a variable quantity that is equivalent is some senses to strength of belief. For some dogmatists however faith is equivalent to certainty in the truth of a belief. For others faith is a state of mind concerning particular propositions or beliefs that does not involve certainty but might instead have an emotional or motivational context.
The following list of definitions is therefore neither internally consistent nor comprehensive but reflects a variety of opinions. Depending on your individual perspective faith might also be defined as:
The motivation for action in the world
Belief in the absence of evidence (Wikipedia)
Belief without evidential tests
Belief in the absence of observation
Belief in the value of an idea that cannot be proven scientifically
Holding an idea to be true without proof
Reliance or trust in an idea without proof
Belief that does not depend on logical proof or materialistic evidence
Belief based on emotion or feelings rather then logical reasoning
Belief despite uncertainty
Transcendent feelings of certainty
A lack of uncertainty
Strong belief
Complete confidence in a person, plan, explanation, idea, test, experiment or prediction
Loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person
A religion
Belief in god(s) or the supernatural
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith
Certainty of Faith
The emotional reward of certain 'faith' is the motivational or emotional drive that helps us deviate towards certainty of belief in a particular direction despite a lack of definitive evidence. The professional evolutionary biologist depending on repeatable observations has the same potential to develop a personally rewarding and certain 'faith' in his explanations of origins as the Islamic Jihadist who might rely on the 'revealed truth' of the Koran. Indeed because of their requirements for consistent supporting observational evidence the biologists feel more logically justified in their 'faith'. Such a 'faith' could develop despite the fact that an individual biologist could not reasonably expect to witness the future evolution of even one new species in his or her life-time. Certainty of faith, despite a subjective probabilistic uncertainty, in this and other such situations can be regarded as faith by many of the commonly accepted meanings of the term.
Further Reading
Faith and Reason an article at the IEP by James Swindall, Duquesne University
On the Nature of Belief
www.onbelief.org
Scotland, 12th October 2007 and thereafter
Copyright 2007 onwards
