Why I Don't Believe

A person posted a testimony on a Facebook group that I follow and the post was liberally sprinkled with the phrase: "we need to believe." I responded as follows:

Why is it necessary for us to believe those things? The world is full of things that we don't have to believe in: this book, that chair, the light coming in the window, the gravity that keeps us from floating away. Those are all things that we can see or feel or experience for ourselves in an unambiguous way and others can do the same.

Let us say I have a chair. I tell people it is the most wonderful chair in the world and so divinely comfortable that every other chair pales in comparison. They will naturally want to see it and sit in it. But what if I don't let anybody ever see it or sit in it? They might suspect that I'm exaggerating or perhaps don't even have a chair at all. Would they be wise or foolish to doubt my word?

Some would say: "show us the chair and then we'll be able to decide for ourselves whether it lives up to your words." Would it be right for me to accuse them of non-belief and to heap scorn on them because of it? Of course it would not be right. Why should I expect people to believe me if I can show them the chair and they can decide for themselves? If I'm telling the truth I have nothing to fear and my word would be vindicated.

It is only if I were not telling the truth or could not produce the chair that I would have to make belief into such a virtue that people would feel guilty or ashamed to admit that they did not believe me. But why would anyone do that? What do I have to gain from their credulity?

Perhaps I could invent another world and tell people that they would go there after they die if only they just believe me. And then, if they believe enough, they will have a chair of their own in that next world. So if things seem tiring in this world, they can comfort themselves with the thought that they'll be able to sit and rest in divine comfort forever in the next life.

If I can get people to believe me, I can invent rules that will place doubt on whether they will go to that good place. Why I could even invent a bad world with no chairs at all where people would go if they didn't believe me. Then think of what I would be able to demand from them -- if they believed me.

Growing up in the church and serving diligently for over 4 decades, I heard much about believing but it wasn't until a few years ago that I started thinking about that. What use is belief? Why would God want to cultivate the characteristics of obedience and belief in his children? We have seen many times that obedience and belief can be misused. Who has not heard of former Nazis claiming they were only following orders? Who has not heard of or experienced snake oil salesmen or other charlatans trying to get people to trust them so they could cheat them out of their money? Blind obedience and belief without evidence are the keys to these bad outcomes.

So I ask again: "why would God primarily want to cultivate these particular characteristics in his children?".

The answer is: "He doesn't." It is only men who claim to speak for God who make credulity and blind obedience into virtues.

Thus when you say "we need to believe", I cannot help but wonder why it is necessary for me to suspend the faculty of Reason in order to accept your words. You say you have a testimony, but feelings you have in your heart are not something I can experience. You say I need to have a testimony, but I have been misled by feelings in my heart before. I have not been able to fully rely on those feelings as a guide for my actions.

And so, I thank you for the kindly intentions of your words, for I feel that they came from your heart with the best of motives. But I think you are deceived and that you would do better to conduct your life by the light of Reason, requiring evidence before allowing yourself to be persuaded to sacrifice your means to another.