We take Everything on Faith

In the end, we take everything on faith. Some beliefs seem more certain than others, but when you really look at it, what have you got?

What you "know" is a conclusion you've drawn from your seances, your experiences, your intuition, and/or the testimony of others.

Consider your sources:
- You ever been wrong about anything you saw, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt?
- You ever said to yourself "I used to think that way, but not anymore"?
- You ever think "this isn't going the way I thought"?
- You ever regret taking someone's word for it?

The High Aldwin said it best "Forget what you know, or think you know." - Willow (1988).

The lunatic extreme would say "We're not really here. We just think we are." I don't agree but what could I possible say to the contrary? I am here? I am real?

"What is real? How do you define real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain." - Morpheus, The Matrix (1999).

For the sake of my point, I have made up the following definition.
Certainty:
a) the belief we are most comfortable with;
b) the only possibility we are aware of.

I will call on Othello a thousand times as the perfect example for this. From Othello's point of view, the evidence was clear that his wife was unfaithful:
- He hears from a trusted friend that she is unfaithful,
- He sees her with Cassio (the suspected lover) all the time,
- She constantly pleads for Cassio to be reinstated as Lieutenant after he was demoted due to his involvement in a drunken brawl,
- She refuses to produce the handkerchief (his first gift to her),
- He hears Cassio boast his conquest of her, and
- (the smoking gun) He sees Cassio holding the handkerchief.

The point Shakespeare was trying to make was that jealousy (possibly other emotions) can warp your perception of events. I agree. But look at that list again. A sober jury would say that the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt; she is guilty of adultery. And yet all of it is untrue. All of it orchestrated by one man with evil intentions. Othello got played.

We take everything on faith. I am relatively sure I am real. I can never be sure any of you are real. Are you as real as I am? Do you still exist after I leave the room? If I am not there to hear it, did the tree really fall? Is the world being loaded and rendered around me like a video game? Is that why my vision is so low? So that I don't notice anomalies and even if I do I conclude that "I must have seen that wrong"?

After I get over the existence of others, questions arise about what "I know." Was George Washington the first president of the United States? I only know what I have been taught. But why would anybody lie about that?

Not even the scientific method is immune. The second step is the hypothesis: what we believe may happen. You really have no idea what will happen until you flip the switch, push the button, run the program. Hume taught that past experience has no effect on the future; what we expect to happen might not.

We take everything on faith.

We take EVERYTHING on faith.

We believe in the future, so we plan and execute.
We believe the cars behind us will also stop, so we decelerate when the light turns red.
We believe our messages will be delivered, so we type them up and hit Send.
We believe, so we do.

I believe I was build by a benevolent creator.
I believe he was given me a mind to perceive and free will to choose.
I believe Jesus chose to die for my sins.
I believe that act grants me an invitation into his kingdom.
I believe that until his kingdom comes, am I to follow his example.
I believe I must make His kingdom known to others as it was made known to me.
I believe you are capable of making the same choice.
I believe that for as long as the door is open, that choice is up to you, and you alone.

That, among many other things, is what I believe ... and I could be wrong.
I could be wrong.
I could be very wrong.
I could be dead fucking wrong!
But that is the nature of faith.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1).

You don't have to believe what I believe, although I wish you would. But at least consider what I said. We take everything on faith.