Faith and knowledge: Lent 2021, Day 25

In a materialist, rationalist world, is there any place for faith - or does everything need to be scientifically proved?

I know that the world is round. I have proof, I've seen it with my own eyes, watching the world's largest container ship appear from over the horizon. Likewise, I know that a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. I learnt that at school. I have no proof, other than every single source of information that I may care to peruse, telling me that water is not, say, a mixture of phlogiston and aqueous ether. My knowledge regarding the make-up of water, however, is a matter of knowledge, and not just belief. The mind boggles at the sub-atomic level and at the galactic level; it is extremely difficult to get one's head around strong atomic force or a black hole. Science has moved on beyond the scope of our imagination. The scientific method, the demand for proof, the rigorous process of peer review, the repeatability of observations and experiment, sees to it that a hypothesis is either verified, becoming a fact, or is dismissed.

Belief in a supreme deity is a faith; there is no proof one way or the other. Before the Enlightenment, the antithesis of faith wasn't demonstrable knowledge, but idolatry - the worship of an image or person as if they were God. Similarly, rejecting a supreme deity is also a faith, one way or another, the scientific method can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.

If one accepts both science and one's religion in equal parts on the basis of the warrant of authority, one is missing something - the personal, subjective feeling, intuition. Do you feel God - or not?

To me, it is trying to define what I instinctively feel; a sense of a greater meaning, a sense of purpose and direction. Yet it is important not to let wishful thinking or ideology bend my instinctive, intuitive feeling.

I was directed today to a fascinating article by engineer-psychologist, Duncan Riach, who claims that there's no such thing as consciousness. Wow. Either this is an inflammatory provocation, or Mr Riach is a philosophical zombie, who not having consciousness himself, accuses others of also lacking it. One way or another, it is his belief; it is a matter of his faith, given, as he says, that there's no evidence for consciousness. "The problem I have," writes Mr Riach, "is that there’s not only no evidence for it, but what people seem to be referring to as consciousness is explainable as an effect no more unusual, no less materialistically explainable, than water flowing downhill."

On the other hand, there was a piece (that I didn't bother reading) by some Evangelical Christian from Texas claiming that humans and dinosaurs coexisted in history; this too is a manifestation of faith, albeit one that flies in the face of all scientific evidence.

I've been feeling a bit poorly today - not Covid, I don't think, no fever, headaches or sore throat/cough, just a general achiness and under-the-weatherness that I can't attribute to anything. No walk today, no exercises, a couple of daytime naps. I hope to be back in sorts tomorrow.

This time last year:
Religion and feeling good

This time three years ago:
Perivale Triptych

This time 10 years ago:
Cycling and recycling

This time 11 years ago:
Winter still holding out in the forest

This time 12 years ago:
Little car, huge price

This time 13 years ago:
Old school Łódź