Belief

Conversation 16, Socrates Worldview 12/22

Socrates paused as a waiter wove his way towards their table and placed a cup of black coffee in front of Critobulus.

SOCRATES. I notice that you never have milk in your coffee, Critobulus.

CRITOBULUS. I don’t believe in adulterating good coffee with milk, Socrates.

S. That’s a very interesting statement, Critobulus.

C. What’s so interesting about it, Socrates? Many people drink black coffee.

S. I’m interested in your use of the word ‘believe’. Now that you have presented us with this topic, I believe that we must digress from our charted plan and address the meaning of belief.

EUTHYDEMUS. So we are not going to tackle the humanists today?

S. We must defer that pleasure until tomorrow, Euthydemus.

E. If you say so, Socrates.

S. As we head into the topics of humanism and Christianity, we will naturally be led to consider the concept of belief, so it is timely to discuss the meaning of belief. Who will offer us a definition of belief?

ADEIMANTUS. I think of belief as the acknowledgement of the truth of a proposition.

S. Yes Adeimantus, ever the intellectual! I accept that as one definition.

E. I think there is more to belief than just an intellectual position. I equate belief with faith, which means accepting a proposition to the extent of basing one’s actions on it.

S. Indeed, Euthydemus, I agree with that too. I call this practical belief. You believe in principles or propositions that guide your actions. You may not be totally sure of the truth of a proposition, but you decide to act as if it were true.

C. Any more definitions, Socrates?

S. Yes Critobulus, as well as the intellectual and practical aspects of belief, I think there is also an emotional dimension. This is the desire to believe that something is true, perhaps leading to the will to believe. In this case, certainly, the believer will act as if the proposition were true.

C. You are very fond of the subjunctive mood, Socrates.

S. Be that as it may, Critobulus, I think it will be instructive to look at some dictionary definitions. My old school dictionary (The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English 1962) defines ‘believe’ as: ‘accept as true; have faith in’, which succinctly captures our intellectual and practical dimensions. Another (The Little Macquarie Dictionary 1993) also refers to those two dimensions and adds this interesting definition of ‘belief’: ‘acceptance of the truth or reality of a thing without absolute proof’.

A. Presumably absolute proof would make it knowledge rather than belief.

S. Quite so, and if someone says to me that I am wrong to believe a certain proposition, are they suggesting that there is absolute, or at least convincing, proof that the proposition is untrue?

A. So it would seem, Socrates.

S. But if there is reasonable doubt about the evidence for or against a proposition, then I am free to believe it, if I want to?

A. We must allow that, Socrates.

S. Belief in the presence of doubt is of great importance to our general discussion. One of my favourite stories in the bible is about the man who brings his son to Jesus to be cured (The New Jerusalem Bible 1985, Mark 9:24). Jesus says that anything is possible for one who has faith. The man answers, ‘I have faith. Help my lack of faith!’ Another translation puts it as, ‘Lord I believe, help my unbelief.’ This is the most honest and human of answers. The man is not sure about the truth of the proposition, but he wants it to be true for the sake of his son. He takes the practical action of bringing his son to Jesus as if the proposition were true. He has emotional and practical belief. He asks Jesus to help him with his doubts about the proposition.

E. And Jesus did cure the boy, despite the father’s doubts.

S. So the story goes, Euthydemus. This is the human condition. Our reason might tell us one thing and our emotions, or as we used to say, our hearts, might tell us another. It’s not necessarily dishonest or hypocritical to hold both positions.

C. Do you allow emotion to trump reason, Socrates?

S. Not all believers have the time, education, or desire to analyse their beliefs in terms of propositions. Many of them have difficult lives. If their beliefs come under systematic attack, they may be quite defenceless. They may be inclined to clutch at straws, like the discredited ‘proofs’ of God’s existence that we will discuss tomorrow. Many lose their faith and as a result find themselves much more poorly equipped to deal with the ups and downs of life. This is hardly doing them a service. This is ‘handing them a scorpion when they ask for an egg’ (The New Jerusalem Bible 1985, Luke 11:12).

C. So you do allow emotion to trump reason!

S. We will go into this question more tomorrow, Critobulus. I think we will find that the most important choices in life are, of necessity, irrational. I hope that prospect does not frighten you too much! There is still plenty of guidance from human history to go by. By putting too much emphasis on reason in questions of belief, there is a very real risk of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’. Humanists extol reason and discredit emotion. In doing so, they are denying one side of their human nature. But I strongly suspect they are not very successful in doing so. If you dig into a humanist, I guarantee you will find the hidden closet where the emotions are at work. Even the reverence afforded to reason stems from an emotional desire. The emotions drive them to rig the ‘given truths’ on which they found their reasoning so that they get the right answer. Then their emotions blind them to their prejudice. But let’s not fight tomorrow’s battle today! Until tomorrow, then.

References

1993. The Little Macquarie Dictionary. Macquarie University, NSW: The Macquarie Library.

1962. The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Third. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.

1985. The New Jerusalem Bible. London: Darton, Longman, & Todd.