Jerusalem & Athens

The words "faith", "belief" and "trust" are assumed to be ideals and virtues one ought to admire and strive to posses. This notion is especially true when it comes to religion and is understood to be a fundamental principle in the world view of the religious person. However, between the constructive and healthy form of faith and destructive and senseless gullibility, lies a very thin line. Many a religious person, motivated by zeal and devotion for their respective path, have crossed this line. There are even groups and sects which have come to demonize reason all together and have turned "baseless belief" and "blind faith" into the ideal way of life. It is thus imperative to properly establish and define the proper place for faith and belief in our lives and to understand exactly where and how it ought to be inculcated within our world view. But first we must lay down some foundations. These will allow us to proceed with a fra...

I have long struggled with the idea of belief. I have never understood it's definition or it's purpose. If belief is based on concrete observation or irrefutable logic then why call it belief; it is knownledge. And if belief is irational, if it means to accept something as true without any evidence, then what is it based on and why is it a good thing? It has become clear to me that baseless belief or blind faith is simply stupidity. Anyone that claims a given fact to be true without any evidence, simply because they believe it, is acting foolishly. So what then does it mean to believe? What place, if any, does belief have in our lives? I would like to suggest the following theory. People misunderstand and misuse the vital role of belief. They expect it to function as a tool for uncovering or discerning truth and use it as such. The truth is however, it was never meant for that.  Belief was never meant to be the mechanism by which we find or establish truths ; instead it...