What is belief? When challenged with the implausibility of religious dogma, the response of the faithful is to say we must accept the contents of the Good Book (whichever one) “on faith”. What is faith? A common definition is believing without sufficient evidence. What is belief? Is there just one kind of belief, or does belief come in many shapes?
I believe that a caterpillar is the young or larval form of a butterfly. I was taught this in school. I have seen caterpillars and chrysalises and butterflies, but I have not myself observed the complete life cycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly in such a way as to be sure that I am seeing only one creature. Yet I am assured that a caterpillar will become a butterfly as it proceeds through its growth cycle. This is in spite of what was probably initial scepticism when I was first told this. How can they be one creature? They look quite different. They have different numbers of legs. They move differently. They behave differently. A baby looks a bit like an adult human. A puppy looks quite like a mature dog. A new-born giraffe is very like an adult giraffe except for its size. But a caterpillar looks nothing like a little butterfly. It is highly counter-intuitive to regard them as the same.
Since I have not myself taken steps to verify my belief, it must be partly based on authority, my confidence that the teachers I had in school would not teach what they thought to be false. It is also based on a feeling that, if it were false, there would by now be caterpillar-deniers, seeking to convince me that I was wrong. It could also be that this particular fact is of little importance to me in my profession or social life. I do not depend on my confidence in caterpillars becoming butterflies for any spiritual or intellectual comfort. If necessary, I could afford to be caterpillar-agnostic or even a-butterflyist.
Beliefs can be divided by time reference, beliefs in the past, the present or about the future. As far as the future is concerned there is only expectation, conjecture or doubt; there can be no experimental certainty. To some extent belief about the past is verifiable, and beliefs about the present should be. But beliefs about the future are really only hopes, fears and extrapolations about the present.
About the past, I believe that Frederick the Great met Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747, after which Bach sent Frederick a copy of his Musical Offering. I believe it because I have been told it by three independent sources, a book by Douglas Hofstadter, a book by James Gaines, and a disc sleeve note published by Decca, none of which had anything to gain by misleading me. I further believe that Bach and Frederick were highly antagonistic, even though the encounter was surrounded in words of outward respect and gratitude. For this I have only one source, the book by James Gaines, but he seems to show so much scholarship and knowledge of the background that I am ready to accept his major conclusions, though realising that he may be misleading me here and there in details. If you were to present me with a book contradicting Gaines’s thesis and telling me that Bach and Frederick were kindred spirits who admired each other unreservedly, I would read it and make up my mind. At present I believe Gaines; should I call my attitude to his book faith?
About the present I believe that caterpillars become butterflies for very similar reasons, namely that nobody gains by misleading me. I believe that the French language is widely spoken in France, because I have visited many regions and heard it, and that the Thai language is widely spoken in Thailand, again because I have spent a long time there. I believe that Russian is widely spoken in Russia, but for that I have no direct evidence. Indeed there is some counter-evidence, since in all the movies I have seen with scenes set in Russia, all the Russian characters seem to speak English to each other, sometimes with a funny accent. But Russians speak Russian; I have to take it on faith.
About the future I believe I will probably be dead before 2039, since I have not pursued the kind of lifestyle that would presage my reaching my hundredth birthday. I will almost certainly be dead by 2099, since modern human life spans of 160 years are not attested.
The Christian beliefs that I was encouraged to adopt at school include these:
Jesus died as a result of crucifixion in around 30 AD. Yes, there seems to be some documentation, at least of what a lot of near contemporaries thought, so I could agree that a Jewish rebel who might have been called something like Jesus might have been executed for sedition around that time.
Jesus rose from the dead after three days. Here the documentary evidence all seems to come from people whose objectivity and competence as observers I cannot judge. But it all seems highly unlikely.
Wine drunk at the communion service becomes blood. Here my own observation seems to refute this. All the communion wine I have drunk tastes just like sweet red wine, though it is quite a long time since I last took communion. I have never drunk blood other than sucking on a cut finger to stem the flow of blood, but that taste seemed utterly different from sweet red wine.
If I believe in Jesus, my sins are forgiven. Really? Even if I have not forgiven myself and still squirm at the memory of some things in my past? Anyway, what business is it of Jesus to forgive me? The forgiveness should come from the people I wronged.
And if I accept Jesus as my saviour I will go to heaven and spend eternity praising God. Surely, I will die of boredom before long. (Is it possible to die if you are in heaven?)
So I come back to where I started: in spite of having sung in a church choir for fifteen years (since Christians have certainly got the music right), thank God I’m an atheist.
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