Another film, quite different than the aforementioned, called Dogma (1999) is a comedy that addresses religion in a satirical form, one which I would have to deem sacrilegious. I take no issue of this fact and feel that despite its sacrilegious tendencies, the film brings up quite a few relevant points of discussion concerning faith. Specifically, a quote from the character Serendipity kickstarted my thinking for this discussion:
"When are you people going to learn? It's not about who's right or wrong. No denomination's nailed it yet, because they're all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn't matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains gotta wake up." - Dogma (1999)This quote made me realize how the concept of faith is so extremely critical to religion, in general. It is impossible to believe in Christianity without first having faith... a fact of which most all of us realize yet tend to overlook when exploring the religious perspective's of others.
Now, to further discussion, I will add my own thoughts on the philosophy in which I conceive my religious perspective. In my mind, there are two choices from which we as humans must decide: Is there a creator of this savage garden that we live or did the same garden originate out of the evolution of nature itself? It is important to note that either choice made will ultimately require faith - how else is there to justify our choice? Regardless of our justifications, ultimately we must have faith that we made the right decision and furthermore have faith that we can justify our decision to ourselves and others time and time again. Continuing, there are certain implications for either choice we make, but I argue that there is one option that separates itself from the others.
1. If we decide to believe in a creator, it is obvious we will either be right or wrong - just as with the second option presented.
2. If we decide to believe in no such creator, we will still be either right or wrong. If we are right, then we are equal to those that incorrectly chose to believe in a creator.
This is the logic in which I base my faith. Blaise Pascal takes a similar idea in which he discusses a 'wager' and he makes the same point: "What do you have to lose?". Let me further illustrate the point. Say there are two doors from which to choose:
Door #1: Open if you believe in God.
Door #2: Open if you do not believe in God.
If you walk through Door #1 and you are right, you win a prize. If you walk through Door #1 and you are wrong, you may exit and enter Door #2.
If you walk through Door #2 and you are right, nicely done, but you receive no prize and you cannot exit to try Door #1. If you walk through Door #2 and you are wrong, you receive no prize and you cannot exit to try Door #1.
Examining this conundrum, it seems that the only way to win a prize is if you choose to believe in God. Also, and more importantly, the consequence for incorrectly walking through Door #1 is the exact same as the consequence for correctly or incorrectly walking through Door #2! This brings up Pascal's point in his text, The Wager. What do we have to lose? If the consequences are the same for either option, would we not be right to choose the option that at least offers a prize?
"But by faith we know his existence. In glory we shall know his nature." - Blaise Pascal
Hey Austin,
ReplyDeleteCool and interesting article! I've never seen the wager. I'm going to have to watch that one day. The illustration that was used about the Doors, I didn't think that was a strong analogy to drive home the point but I could get where he's going. One thing I think and have noticed is that we tend to equate doing good and right actions to the living of a christian life but the two are really separate ideologies. Those virtues and values exist outside of the Christian God, its okay to be skeptic of fishy "faith based" things that really doesn't add up.