Skepticism about Skeptical Faith?
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I never felt coerced to believe anything, and I recall
challenging the nuns and priests throughout my years in school – including the
priests who taught me in the seminary. Many of them weren’t happy about it, but
there were never any dire consequences.
Am I saying that I wasn’t influenced by my teachers and the
faith that I inherited from my parents? Of course I was. But everybody has to try
to make objective judgments about what they’ve been taught, heard and seen.
Usually, that’s done incrementally during one’s life.
“Critical thinking” is usually thought of as a quality of
science and scientists, not religious people. But I don’t quite see it that way. Scientists are also products of their backgrounds and upbringing
and the influences of their teachers. They see reality through their eyes as I
see it through mine. No one is excused from critical thinking.
Objective Analysis
I like the simple definition offered by Wikipedia: “Critical
thinking is the objective
analysis of facts to form a judgment.” It’s related to skepticism, which
Wikipedia describes as “any questioning attitude or doubt towards one or
more items of putative knowledge or belief.” “Putative,” by the way, means what
is generally accepted to be the truth.
Many people
believe that religion is the “putative knowledge” and skepticism is doubting religious
views. And that has some validity, I believe. Religion, too, should be met with
skepticism. Isn’t that why God made us intelligent beings? I think God likes
the bumper sticker, “Question Everything.”
Obviously, I
don’t accept the common notion that skepticism is a negative thing. That’s why
I call this blog “Skeptical Faith.” Some would quarrel with this title because
they may see the blog as promoting religion. And I acknowledge that the point
of the blog is to get people to look at religion more objectively, trying to
minimize the biases and cultural baggage of today’s society.
Tania Lombrozo
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But others would
quarrel with it because they believe skepticism, which they view as a negative
thing, has no place alongside belief. To me, they reject the notion of faith,
which requires trust in God and the renunciation of the false promise of
certainty.
In a recent
commentary on the National Public Radio web site, Tania Lombrozo, a psychology professor at
the University of California, who writes about psychology, cognitive science
and philosophy, takes on the subject of skepticism.
Too often, she writes, skepticism “expresses approval when the target of
skepticism is a claim we reject, and disapproval when the target is a claim we
hold dear.” If we’re Republican, we may be skeptical only of positions held by
Democrats. If Democrat, skeptical only of Republican positions.
“Sometimes, though, skepticism is taken to be a healthy attitude towards
belief — a characteristic that we might praise regardless of its target,”
writes Lombrozo. “Skepticism is supposed to reflect a willingness to question
and doubt — a key characteristic of scientific thinking. It encourages us to
look at the evidence critically; it allows for the possibility that we are
wrong.”
Indeed, science cannot function properly without skepticism, but neither
can religion, because without it, it’s hard to internalize what you believe.
“…Taken too far,” however, “skepticism misses its mark,” she continues. “It's
important to avoid the error of believing something we ought not to believe,
but it's also important to avoid the error of failing to believe that which we
should.”
Humility
Lombrozo
believes skepticism should be accompanied by humility, and always implies a
search for truth.
Regarding
humility, one of the hazards of belief is smugness – the attitude that my faith
has bestowed the truth on me but not on unbelievers. And smugness poses the
danger of being judgmental.
As
for the search for truth, I believe the greater danger today is not the blind
acceptance of religion but the lack of skepticism about the modern substitutes
for religion. Skepticism requires the willingness to accept truth where we see
it – including the most obvious places like the Church.
People
seriously searching for God can’t leave God out of the equation, of course. We
need to pray for faith and be God-like. But religious belief is rational. There
are good reasons for it, and it’s our job to find them. While doing so, we can
be skeptics and believers. There is
such a thing as “skeptical faith.”
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