DAY 184
CHALLENGE
Religion is irrational. It requires us to maintain faith even in the face of contrary evidence.
DEFENSE
No one instantly abandons his convictions upon encountering the slightest bit of contrary data. This is not true in religion, and it is not true in other areas.
We encounter vast amounts of data in our lives, some of which will contradict things we believe. When this happens, we have three basic choices: (1) ignore the new data, (2) revise our belief to fit the new data, or (3) abandon our belief.
Each choice can be rational in different situations. If we have strong evidence for our belief and the contrary data is minimal, we may assume it is a fluke and our existing belief is sound. If the new evidence has significant weight, it may be rational to revisit our belief to see if it needs to be tweaked. And if the new data is overwhelming, it may be rational to abandon the belief.
Each decision also can be irrational. For example, a scientist would be foolish to dismiss a well-supported theory based on the first tiny bit of evidence pointing in the other direction. That’s not what scientists do. When only small points of contrary data emerge, scientists typically dismiss them, assuming the current theory will be supported by future evidence. As additional contrary evidence mounts, they may tweak the current theory, and they abandon it only when decisive contrary evidence has been accumulated.
It is rational for scientists to proceed in this way, and it is rational for religious believers to do the same. They can have the courage of their convictions and should not be, as Paul says, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).
In religion and other fields, being willing to instantly abandon one’s beliefs based on the slightest bit of contrary data is not rational and will result in a person being someone “who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).
TIP
For a discussion of this topic from a religious viewpoint, see C.S. Lewis’s essay, “On Obstinacy in Belief” in The World’s Last Night. For a discussion from a scientific point of view, see Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.