"If I ever find proof that my beliefs are false, I will change my beliefs."
I've heard several Christians say this - a few of them good friends of mine. At first glance, it sounds quite reasonable. "Show me proof," they say, "and I will change my mind." I'd like to explain why this isn't reasonable at all.
"If I ever find proof that my beliefs are false, I will change my beliefs" is a cop out. For one thing, it's easy for the believer to shift the goal posts, demanding "proof" in the strictest sense of the word: the kind of proof which is usually only found in mathematics and bottles of alcohol. In other words, the believer will never find this proof. That makes this seemingly rational statement safe for even the most dogmatic believer to say with confidence.
Another problem is that a person makes this claim attempting to appear rational without ever feeling the need to question his beliefs. Religious faith is acquired almost always via non-rational means, so this person - who wants to sound entirely objective and rational - maintains a faith he accepted without critical thinking and has never bothered to question. "If I ever find proof that my beliefs are false, I will change my beliefs" is just another way of saying, "I have these beliefs and I'm not going to think about whether they're true."
Make no mistake: if someone shows you proof that what you believe is false, then of course discarding those beliefs for better ones is immanently rational. But this is not the be-all and end-all of rationality as it pertains to beliefs, and most Christians who make the "If I ever find proof that my beliefs are false, I will change my beliefs" claim merely trying to appear rational. They aren't actually trying to be rational.
Beliefs should be formed on the basis of reason, and no authority, tradition or dogma should influence one's beliefs. Individuals should not accept any proposition as true without recourse to logic and reason. This is the foundation of freethought. Freethinkers are skeptical, demanding sufficient evidence to warrant acceptance of a proposition as true. Freethinkers are not bound by dogmatism, and do not accept claims on faith.
When I was a Christian, I considered myself a freethinker. Even now I argue that, in my later Christian years, I was indeed a freethinker. Some of you may point to my current apostasy as evidence of this, but my point is, my beliefs were always subject to examination. I worked hard to maintain beliefs backed by logic and reason. I refused to believe anything dogmatically.
There I was, learning about the value of free thought, yet having already arrived at my christian beliefs via non-rational means. Nevertheless, I believed my faith was rational. I rejected fideism with a heated passion. I wanted sufficient rational warrant for my beliefs, and didn't want to settle for anything less. Granted, my dedication to freethought as a Christian forced me to overcome strong emotional attachment to my beliefs, which took years. I struggled with the temptation to resort to retroactive reasoning to justify my faith. After all, the reasons why I came to the faith in the first place weren't "reasons" at all in the logical sense.
In spite of my religious ideological preferences and bias, I had an even greater desire to understand truth - regardless of what the truth happens to be. This meant I had to subject my beliefs to rational scrutiny; not in an attempt to prove them false, but to see whether I had good reason to believe them at all. I discarded Christian theism not because I had found proof that it was wrong, but because I couldn't find good reason to believe that it's right.
Dead-Logic.com
[NERD NOTE: My first blog entry of the new year was posted on 1/1/11 at 1:11 AM. I don't know whether anyone cares, but I think it's cool.]
Freethinking Versus Faith
Freethinking Versus Faith
Posted by , Published at 11:11 PM and have
