Post originally by Wyvern at 2004-11-25 03:58:37
Converted from Phorums BB System

Zoran Bekric wrote:
-------------------------------
* Since it's based on faith, then by definition, it need not be based on any input from the reality around the characters.
* Since it's based on faith, then by definition, it cannot be affected by reason or contrary evidence.
-------------------------------

That's an awfully narrow, skewed and cynical definition of faith (I notice you picked one dictionary definition and ignored the other five), and suggests that you don't really understand what faith means to those who have it.

<i>"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see"</i> - (Hebrews 11:1)

Notice that this does *not* say "regardless of evidence to the contrary." It's certainly possible to have <i>unreasonable</i> faith (i.e. faith that is impervious to reason), but that's not a defining characteristic of all faith. Faith just means that you accept certain things as true even though they haven't been empirically proven.

As you rightly pointed out, religious faith is not the only kind of faith, and in this sense we all take a lot of things "on faith". When I buy a hamburger at McDonald's, I have faith that it's not poisoned. Not because I've empirically proven that it's not, but because I can reasonably expect, based on experience and logic, that it won't be. Now if someone proved to me that it *was* poisoned, I would "lose faith" -- but that doesn't mean that I didn't really have faith to start with.

To give an example more relevant to the topic at hand: when the FBI uses CODIS to convict someone of a crime, they demonstrate faith on many different levels -- faith that the information in the database is accurate, faith that the program works properly, faith that the process of DNA analysis gives accurate results, faith in the notion that no two people have identical DNA -- even though they probably don't have a detailed understanding of how all of these things work, let alone "logical proof or material evidence" that they're true.

So to say that faith and empirical investigation are mutually exclusive simply isn't backed up by the evidence.

Wyvern


"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
- William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"