Philosophy for Believers. Edward W. H. Vick
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Название: Philosophy for Believers
Автор: Edward W. H. Vick
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Религия: прочее
isbn: 9781631996603
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Note now that while there are two nouns ‘belief’ and ‘faith’, there is only one single verb corresponding to each of these. This is the verb ‘to believe’. So while we talk of believing, we do not speak of ‘faithing’. Because of this, the word ‘to believe’ may mean ‘to have belief’, or it may mean ‘to have faith’. We must make up our minds in any particular case. We must be careful to distinguish the uses of the word, so that its various meanings do not get confused. For if they do, then the meaning of faith i. e. the appropriate meaning in the particular context is bound to be obscured. If we have alternatives in mind, we may better decide in any given context which is the appropriate meaning of the term. We shall then not simply transfer one meaning to each case, or one inadequate meaning to the particular context. For example, ‘believing’ might mean ‘accepting as true on inadequate evidence’. Whether that is an adequate meaning will depend upon the usage to which it is put. If the context demands that usage, then the meaning it has is a proper one. But this does not mean that ‘believe’ will have this meaning in other contexts.
Going then to our examples: In the first instance, ‘I believe’ means ‘I am of the opinion that’, ‘I am more or less certain that what I am saying is correct’. What is being affirmed is the correctness (more or less) of a fact. You could easily give other examples: I believe you can get to New York from London in five hours; I believe that Mary is Jane’s cousin; I believe that Sara Jones is a pen-name for Susan Jenkins, etc.
In the case of b and c the term ‘I believe in’ expresses the confidence appropriate to what is believed in. ‘I believe in penicillin’ means that you would recommend its use, you would use it yourself, because you anticipate it would produce benefit when used. ‘I believe in Chelsea’, a football team, means that you think that they are likely to have success rather than failure. In both of these cases the confidence expressed is tested by future performance. If penicillin produced such dreadful side effects that outweighed its future usefulness you would not talk this way about it. If Chelsea never won a game for the whole of the season you would soon lose that confidence. ‘I believe in’ in the sense ‘l have confidence in’ is a statement which you can alter if you find that things don’t turn out so as to support your confidence. You have to wait and see!
We may not be aware of the total range of our confidence. We assume beliefs, which we only make explicit when there is some demand upon us or when they are called into question, or when perhaps, for methodological purposes, we feel that examination is called for to make them explicit. The physical scientist has a confidence of this kind. He assumes, that is to say he believes in, the reliability of nature, accepting the principle of uniformity as the foundation for all his work. Such an assumption is irrational in the sense that he is never able to give decisive and finally convincing reasons that this is so. But his whole activity is based upon this belief being a worthy one. That belief is a non-scientific assumption which, when made, he finds makes his scientific work possible. He too has faith. That his methods ‘work’ is sufficient to sustain that faith.
In the case of d, we have an example of an expression of personal trust. ‘I believe in you’, spoken by a father to his son, by a voter to his representative, by a friend to his friend, means ‘I trust you’. The term is now being used on a personal level. Of course, it might turn out that such trust is wrongly placed. If you have confidence in a friend and speak to him about private matters and find that the secret is kept, your confidence is maintained. But can you be absolutely sure? What if the next time you share a confidence you find that someone later knows about it? Or what if one day you find a knife in your back? But people do trust one another. They do act as if there is not going to be this let-down. They are willing to venture on the assumption that the future will bear out their trust. But they also know that there are quite specific ways in which such trust could be shown to be misplaced. But they do not expect that it will. In this fourth sense, then, ‘I believe’ means I have trust of a personal kind.
1 Belief, Testimony and Knowledge‘I’ll do the impossible. What you believe in, I’ll believe in.’John Steinbeck, East of Eden‘I can’t believe that !’ said Alice.‘Can’t you? The Queen said in a pitying tone. ‘Try again: draw a long breath and shut your eyes.’Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’The Christian religion demands and offers belief. Some people find it impossible to believe, to accept the demand to have faith. For others it is because it is impossible that they confess to the occurrence of a miracle to bring about such belief. It is not only the sceptic who talks that way when he explains that he cannot believe. The believer sometimes says the same, in a reverse, positive way: ‘It required a miracle to bring about my faith.’ Take the words of the non-believer classically expressed by David Hume, On Miracles:The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: and whoever is moved by faith to assent to it is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principle of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.We can discuss the issues on different levels, by asking the following questions:What does it mean to believe?What can you believe and what can you not believe?Can you choose to accept a particular belief?Can you choose between beliefs?Basic and fundamental questions for the Christian believer are what it means to believe in God, to believe that what the sacred writings present to us is true.1 That second question is one which the non-believer can also ask. Both believer and non-believer will ask, ‘Are we to take as both authentic and as true the claims that the various writings of scripture make?’ Both will also ask, ‘Why does the believer take these writings to be authoritative in a way the non-believer does not?’ ‘Is it possible to establish common ground over the difference of approaches?’We have distinguished two meanings. The term ‘believe’ sometimes means ‘to have faith’. It also means ‘to have a belief.’ The distinction can be illustrated by considering two sentences.I believe in God.I believe that Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God and of the Son of Man.The term ‘believer’ has two meanings: a person who has faith. It also means one who assents to particular beliefs, who accepts purported claims to be true. Those who share faith (belief in one sense i.e. ‘belief in’) do not always share beliefs (i.e. ‘belief that’). For example, both may share belief in having faith in a loving God, and yet disagree about what they believe (assent to) about the problem of evil and suffering, or about scripture and its interpretation.Christians, like other theistic believers, have writings they consider to be not only authentic but also authoritative. For the Christian believer is interested in both the present and in the past. The writings, called ‘Scripture’ make frequent reference to events that happened, to people and peoples who lived in the past, to places which now no longer exist. So historical questions are often of importance. It is relevant to ask why, if so.These documents are sources and provide testimony. They witness to persons, events, beliefs. Sometimes the writing is the only witness to the events it purports to report and interpret. Such testimony is thus available for the kind of scrutiny the historian directs to historical sources.The believer and the unbeliever share something in common. They both make claims about historical events based on evidence available generally, in particular from written documents. What each claims about a particular report will depend on the background beliefs they hold. They may both agree that Mark was the source of a miracle story, but then disagree about whether the miracle actually took place. The dispute may be on a theoretical level. One believes in the universality of natural law. The other believes God has ways of intervening into the system of nature. Those are the more fundamental beliefs. One believes that allowance must be made for the truth of reports in a sacred book that would not be made in other cases. The other believes that reports in a sacred book are to be evaluated according to principles of historical evaluation that are universal.The unique testimony of Christians СКАЧАТЬ