Hi Struan
Never having been much of an advocate of faith I would describe it as:
A state of mind that leads people to accept something in the total
absence of supporting evidence.
On 30 Apr 99, at 19:52, Struan Hellier wrote:
> I don't like the definition of faith as 'unquestioning belief'. Faith is
> no less faith for being questioned.
Perhaps the above should have been "unquestionED belief". Once a
belief is questioned it is no longer faith. If it is found to be groundless
or continues to be unsupportable but the belief remains then it
becomes dogma.
> My answer (with that qualification) is that accepting any metaphysical
> position is ultimately an act of faith, but that reason is the tool for
> sorting out which one is the more plausible.
I agree that the initial act may be a matter of faith if the position itself
or its possible consequences are left unquestioned. But once the
process of examination is started, faith must be replaced by some
other state. (See my final comment below)
> "What role does FAITH play in the MoQ?"
>
> One example of faith in the MoQ is that we must suppose the universe to be
> fundamentally good. Without faith in the value of everything the MoQ would
> mean nothing.
I don't want to go too far into this at the moment as I'm currently
putting together a reply to your question on naturalism, which would
seem to have a bearing on the above.
> Another example is that we must have faith in the ability of
> the human mind to construct a reasonable metaphysics. Without this faith,
> we wouldn't even bother to ask the question - the position of a true
> mystic.
Reasonable metaphysical positions have been constructed in the
past - reasonable given the knowledge of the time - so we at least
have some prior position on which to base a belief that a more
reasonable metaphysics can be constructed, but it is the clinging to
an untenable position (or a complete rejection of metaphysics, a la
Positivism) in the light of new knowledge which indicates descent
into dogma.
Just as a matter of interest Struan, have you (or anyone else) come
across a term which describes the position between when faith is
first questioned and when it becomes either supportable or dogmatic.
Horse
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