It is time to consider the grounds of belief.
OK, say that belief must be in a fiction. It is time to
choose.
By your leave.
Who said that?
Who wrote the wikipedia article? Belief is the
state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case with or without
empirical evidence of factual certainty.
(All real evidence must be empirical; revelation ain’t evidence.)
Two belief notions in ancient Greek thought:
pistis—trust-confidence—pistrusfidence
doxa—opinion-acceptance—doxeptance
Jonathan Leicester: belief has the purpose of guiding action
rather than indicating truth. Who is this Jonathan Leicester guy?
Wittgenstein asked: If my friend says to me, “After I die
there will be a judgement in which my soul is weighed,” and I say, “No, I don’t
think there will be,” are we disagreeing? My friend’s belief in a final judgement may
count for their whole life.
Mostly, I’m scared of belief. I don’t want to be touched.
Here’s a synopsis of Pascal’s wager.
Pascal starts by thinking about infinity. We can’t understand
its nature (it’s a number, but it’s neither even nor odd).
I may blame the religious for their belief in an Infinite Providence for which they have no evidence, and which they cannot even imagine.
But Pascal says, do not condemn as wrong those who have made a choice, for you
know nothing about it. But you can blame them for not remaining agnostic. But
Pascal says, No, you must choose: You are already committed.
There is an infinity of infinitely happy life to be won, one
chance of winning against a finite number of chances of losing, and what you
are staking is finite—or is it?—your life.
It has to come down to desire. How can you not WANT there to
be an infinitely loving presence?
blind confidence of an iddy-biddy baby
wrapped in swaddling clothing
lying in a manger
mother’s presence filling all space
her never-failing care.
So there’s no choice after all, no room for hesitation.
Poems for Advent 2017
