The belief in something that has no factual, logical, or scientific basis. Faith commonly involves a deliberate decision to ignore reality and to dodge scrutiny. In the realm of the known, faith frequently becomes merely an easy decision to ignore Reality and to choose to believe in something that reality suggests is false or to become completely indifferent to evidence that contradicts that 'faith'. In the realm of the unknown, faith is the choice to lean against the evidence and toward the unproven. Conversely, a hypothesis is a guess that leans toward evidence supported by logic and reason.
Key elements that indicate faith are:
- Absolute Loyalty to a Position - Unwillingness to change your mind when you are proven wrong. Faith is a choice to believe something even when reality contradicts the belief. A Realist accepts the position that if one is proven wrong, one is expected to change one's mind.
- Avoidance of Scrutiny - Faith-based believers tend to avoid scrutiny of their beliefs. Logic and Reason are declared to be inferior to belief based on emotions and the imagination. Questioning is considered to be either sinful or blasphemy; or that the belief cannot be tested because of achieved salvation through ignorance of reality and loyalty to one's belief first somehow overcomes reality. A believer will sometimes claim that there are "other realities" where the rules of the "physical world" don't apply.
Faith and Reason are held to be mutually exclusive. Things believed through faith can never be proven because if something is proven then faith is no longer necessary. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Once an article of faith has been proven, it then becomes part of the world of reason. The process of proving something means that you have accepted the principles of science and scrutiny. If one tries to prove something then they also have to accept the possibility that it might be disproven. Without the possibility of being disproven, the proof is meaningless.
Anything that you can't question is not real.
Things believed through faith, by definition, are untested. One cannot determine through faith if what one believes is real. Fear that faith tested, might actually prove it to be false, makes faith weak. Two people having faith in opposite things, cannot determine what is real because reason, logic, and scrutiny to make the determination of what is real would expose the opposing faiths to the possibility that one, or both, are false. (See Faith Paradox).
Faith is fundamentally in opposition to the scientific process insofar as it specifically excludes any kind of truth-testing. When one disregards truth and reality, one's denial of reality has determinental consquences to oneself and others.
The Church of Reality is a Doubt Based religion. We reject blind faith. Our position is, any belief that is solely faith-based (in that it rejects scrutiny) is assumed to be not real. Our view is that anything real will stand up to scrutiny and questioning and that we are pursuing real reality as it really is. In order to do that we are required to examine everything to verify our positions. We accept the possibility that things we believe in may prove to be unreal and we are willing to change our minds when we find we have held a belief in an unreality.
Faith should not be confused with trust. Our human minds are limited and as a community we have to choose to trust other people to make determinations for us. When we get on an airplane we trust that those who are in the airline business know how to safely make the plane fly and land. A Realist has a responsibility to question faith and to always issue the Sacred Challenge to ensure that one has not dedicated one's life to a scam.
To us blind faith is a form of idolatry. Blind faith is Worshiping a False Truth. In the Church of Reality blind faith is a Golden Calf. Many religions require blind faith first. Religion expects belief without question. We do not. We embrace Doubt and Scrutiny. We put Reality First. We Accept the Truth. In our world view blind faith is the rejection of Reality.
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