Before we begin, this is my attempt to use a Socratic style of questioning. In this post my intent is to both ask and help the reader to identify what shapes their own religious beliefs as well as the faith-based beliefs of many others? These are challenging questions, sometimes comfortable to answer and sometimes not. I contend that these are all necessary questions, so, here goes.
How does one’s faith, that is, one’s belief in a God or gods get to them? How is it that these ideas spread and become more widely accepted? How does faith then arise in one’s thinking? Also, where does the vocabulary come from? Where do these ideas and concepts originate from? Are they from your holy text?
My friend, are the doctrines of the Bible or Quran self-evident to people prior to their learning about it from others? Here’s a helpful definition of self-evident: Not needing to be demonstrated or explained; obvious.
Consider Christianity, how evident is it really that there is only one God? To take it further, how evident is it, apart from a Bible, that God is three in one? I’m of course referring to the Trinity. There are many things that holy books want us to take on pure faith, right? Here’s a helpful definition of faith: Firm belief in something for which there is no proof.
Think about sin, my friends, how evident would it be that sin exists as a form of spiritual death and separation from a God? Would people perceive evil and wrongdoing in exactly the same light if there were not a Bible or holy book of some kind to describe it in detail?
Then, what about this idea of a soul? Would we know that we have souls apart from being taught about it? Would we be aware that this soul is meant to live on forever? Where do these beliefs really stem from? How can we know that they correspond to reality?
Is faith in God grounded in our knowledge of reality? That is, in anything that exists independently of us? If so, how? How can you or I conclude angels and demons by interacting with the world? Are beliefs like this more or less true depending on how many people subscribe to them? Depending on whether the people we love and trust the most subscribe to them?
How reliable is an act of faith that desires to commit to these teachings? Is this act of trusting without evidence a reliable way to arrive at the truth? How can we know if these things are true? Food for thought.