" If we take God as our premise, given that there is not sufficient logical cause to believe in God, we have to look outside logic. We have to turn to faith. And once we accept faith as evidence, as a reason to do or believe anything, we have given up the game. There is no idea too absurd. There is no argument that cannot be successfully made. Why should we go into Iraq? Because I have faith that things will work out fine. Why should we kill all the Jews? Because I have faith that God would want us to. " (full text here).
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8 comments:
Thanks for the link. That's one of the few posts on my blog I feel good about in retrospect.
You must be kidding, your whole blog is amazing. If I was from the US it would be my port of first call for politcal stuff.
I only got as far as September 2007 so far, but will read the whole at some point.
Dany
Thanks!
Of course, the obvious rejoinder to the passage that you quote is that the author has totally neglected to account for his own faith commitments. He appears to demonstrate faith in some sort of logical positivism which itself, along with the whole epistemological foundation of science, and the Enlightenment project more broadly, has thoroughly collapsed. At the end of the day, all that everybody is left with, is faith. Some of us are just more honest about that than others.
Dan, I don't think we're theorising quite on the same level. I found the author's quote to be interesting *within* the frame of logical positivism.
This does not mean that I necessarily embrace that frame. But I think that we have to work with it if we're going to work within the sphere of realpolitik (which I am still committed to). I can't help but operating on both levels.
I fully agree with you that "at the end of the day, all that everybody is left with is faith" and that some people have faith in the enlightenment project, which isn't a very great thing to have faith in.
Still, on a very superficial level, this post was more of a critique of people using God to lend authority and certainty to their own (misguided) intuitions, which I think is extremely dangerous.
The best example would be Tony Blair who claimed that "he did not do God" for most of his time in office and then suddenly appealed to God to justify his decision to go to Iraq.
I'd be curious to hear more of what you think. Do you think that this phenomenon -people appealing to what God supposedly told them- should be welcome?
Dany
Dany,
Sure, people shouldn't appeal to God to support their own misguided intuitions, but any appeal -- be it to God, or to logic, or to whatever -- is equally problematical. There is no external, over-arching, universal, objective authority to which any of us can appeal, and so I grow a little weary of those who continue to lay the blame for all our violent behaviour at the altar of faith, all the while assuming that they have discovered some other unassailable authority.
Iraq is a good example. Let us recall that Christopher Hitchens, one of the so-called 'new atheists', has been one of the most vocal supporters of that war, and those who are driving the war in Iraq aren't there because of faith commitment -- they're there for the profits. Blaming Iraq on religion, or faith, obfuscates the real (politico-economic) issues that are motivating, and maintaining, that war.
The problem with American Evangelicals isn't (necessarily) their faith, it's that they have confused their faith with the national interests of America, and with the transnational interests of various corporations. Religion is simply a veneer covering the deeper issues (as Marx told us so many years ago).
Peace,
Dan
I'm not sure which one is easier to argue with, someone who appeals to logic and tolerance or someone who appeals to God -granted that those who are driving the war in Iraq are definitely there for the profits, there's no questionning that-. It may actually be the God folks.
Which line of Marx are you thinking about?
Dany
I was thinking of the line about religion being the opiate of the masses.
As for the ease of arguments, I find that people on all sides of the debate can be equally close-minded. However, I only expect (hmmm, maybe 'expect' is too strong of a word) my arguments to have any sort of persuasive power with the religious folks.
Can't wait to see you!
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