Faith-Based Reasoning

From Quora:


Belief in a Religion or an Ideology is based on what I call faith-based reasoning. The believers think that there are certain statements about reality that are absolutely and immutably true. These statements are that particular faith's or ideology’s core-beliefs or tenets. These inform the faithful how to interpret and interact with reality. 


They are the lens through which they see the world and provide the tramlines for their journey through life.


So when a believer encounters objective evidence that contradicts a core-belief they only have two rational options. They have to reinterpret the evidence in such a way as to keep their tenets true. Or, they ignore the evidence altogether.


If you are a Bible Literalist then you must believe the fossil evidence was placed there by the Devil to tempt the faithful. In a similar vein, when challenged about how Noah managed to save the marsupials in Australia, you would just ignore the question and hope the questioner would just go away.


I am not singling out Bible Literalists but they are easier to discuss as examples. I have encountered similar types of behaviour from adherents of Intelligent Design who steadfastly refuse to say their advocacy is based on belief.


Ideologues too exhibit such behaviours when objective evidence contradicts their core-beliefs. Although Marx predicted the first communist revolutions would occur in industrialised societies like Britain or Germany, the first two revolutions occurred in predominantly agrarian societies, Russia and China. Yet Marxists apologists will reinterpret this evidence to maintain their belief in Marxism.In a similar way, the Trump supporters still believe that the Presidency was somehow stolen from Trump despite overwhelming evidence otherwise.


Faith-based reasoning is a powerful set of paradigms. It offers the believers certainty even though these certainties may appear false to others who do not share their beliefs. It is this certainty that can lead to brave acts such as martyrdom or standing up to authority because they “know” they are right. The downside is that if someone can supplant the original authority, the believers can be exploited by unscrupulous leaders.

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