Faith

My father died in 2020 from "Complications from COVID." He did not take any vaccine offered. As an Anglican Priest, he insisted that his prayer would save him - or at least ensure his salvation. When I asked if he wanted me to have a priest come to see him before he died, he responded via text "I'm my own Priest." My father had absolutely unbreakable Faith in his God. Can you prove such rigor in how your Faith guides your action?

Faith, as I am defining it, is unique in character and has no synonyms. Hope, Trust, Practice etc... terms people commonly use to describe faith are not only insufficient but they ignore the key factor: trust in a proposition that does not have independently testable hypothesis or evidence. "Faith" stands alone as a caveat to ANY epistemology. Quibble all you like around the edges, which people will, but at the end of any epistemic debate with someone claiming faith they will say something to the effect of "I can't prove it, so it's my faith that keeps me going."

As a reader, not only was my first paragraph intentially triggering, but it is also biasing. You've been primed (by me) to think about Faith in the context of religion. This is how most people think about it, and what I am going to explicitly challenge.

On December 22, 2024 a bridge collapsed in Brazil. Just prior to this bridge collapse a local representative broadcast unambiguous signs that the bridge would fail imminently. 9 People died in the collapse. These people, some of which are seen in video, driving over the failing section without stopping, had unshakeable faith that the bridge would not collapse.

How many times have you dared to cross a bridge this week? Did you, even for a fleeting second, assess the possibility of its collapse? Likely not. This blind trust in the structural integrity of bridges is a testament to an unspoken faith, a faith built not on divine promise but on the unyielding bedrock of empirical evidence. When was the last time you defied a doctor's advice because it clashed with your religious convictions? Chances are, seldom.

Do you know how planes fly? Would you know when an elevator is going to fail? Unless you do, then you have Faith in these systems.

There was a time when nobody trusted either aircraft nor elevators. Today people have pure unquestioned faith in both. Existential faith in fact, they test their faith with their lives. You may chuckle and laugh but that's simply because you are ignorant of the systems that keep you alive and safe

Faith then is belief in something so deeply engrained as an unchanging fact, that you forget to even question it. Faith, does not exist for the first flight or the inaugural drive - the creators MAY have faith but few do. The submarine billionaire certainly proved his faith and is mocked for it. Faith pops into existence when we stop questioning. When the risks fade into the background noise of life, and we move forward with unblinking trust. It’s not the daring pioneer who steps onto the first airplane who exemplifies faith; it’s the millions who board flights without a second thought, trusting in the unseen yet rigorously proven safety.

Poof of faith in empirical systems stands as a testament to our reliance on what can be proven, what has been tested. It is this faith that truly governs our lives, unacknowledged but ever-present. Faith, as it’s traditionally understood, is trivial bullshit compared to the towering, unseen faith we place in the empirical all day everyday.