“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”I was having an interesting discussion with a Jehovah's Witness buddy of mine at work about the nature of faith. He asked me what I have faith in, and I had to pause. It's not that I never thought about it before, but it can be very difficult communicating with fundamentalist Christians. This is not a jab at them, it's not because they are all really thick and irritating to talk to. It's because we use the same terms to mean different things. I could say Jesus. But the Jesus I believe in is not the Jehovah he believes in. I can say "God", but if we have radically different interpretations of the bible, our perceptions of God will be quite different. After thinking about it through my break, I answered with this: I have faith in an idea.
Vague, right? I'll explain later. For many Christians, they need to put faith in objective realities. They need to believe that Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago. They need to believe that the bible is inerrant. Otherwise how could they believe in the gospel? They hold history as their authority, yet look to the bible and pastors to provide them their history over historians. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's kind of like going to a pilot to learn about advanced theory of aerodynamics instead of a physicist. They both work with the same laws of aerodynamics, but one will understand it a lot better than the other. The physicist is trained in understanding physics, the pilot in manipulating physics. But despite their methods, they place their faith in a perceived objective reality: something cemented in space and time.
Objective truth holds a number of disciplines, like science and history. To be clear, I am aware that objective truth may be unknowable, but that is not the point. The point is the methods of objective studies treat their subject like it is a cold hard fact by critiquing it and testing its environment, and not assuming things without reasonable probability. There is, however, such a thing as subjective truth. We see subjective truth in things like ethics and philosophy. We cannot through testing affirm that the Holocaust was wrong, but I still believe it was! We can say that it was inconsiderate of human life, but how can we show that being considerate of human life is right? We can't. That's a subjective truth. We believe it is right, and it is generally accepted as right, but it is not objective truth. It is not a physical occurrence, but rather a reaction to an occurrence which reflects our values.
So we have our two types of truths: objective and subjective. The former holding physical and temporal reality, the latter an idea concerning the former. What I was trying to explain to my coworker was that I have faith in the subjective truths found in Jesus' teachings. I don't have faith that the earth is only thousands of years old. I don't have faith that Jesus literally resurrected. But these are relatively unimportant. We cannot test these claims, or show them to somehow be likely. However, through studying the bible I have learned to put faith in the truth that God loves humanity. And that to truly live fulfilled I must love all people as myself. And that my mistakes don't define my existence, but rather my mindset about them do. These things cannot be shown to be wrong or unlikely by others. How could they? It's personal experience and reflection that I put authority in, guided of course by the teachings from the bible. It is these subjective truths that change how we live, how we think. We are transformed not by faith in an objective reality, but by subjective truths in response to reality around us.
Religion gives us all a unique framework to think about life. They reflect our culture, our values, and our desires. My faith is who I am. But it cannot be shaken through history or science, nor must I insist on my own version of history or science to keep it alive. Personal transformation is a powerful experience, but you won't find it through cold hard facts. It's how the facts are arranged and valued. It's the mythic element behind our sacred stories, it the passion that inspires our movies and music. It's like being in love: it inspires us to be better people for something greater than ourselves. My faith is not stuck in reality, and it's something so much more powerful than fact.
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