FAITH is a funny thing. Hitorically it has driven men to the extremes of good and evil, warming many hearts with hope while destroying many others in malice. Religious faith fueled the fire burning in the minds of the mass murderers of Sept. 11, but it also has been an enduring anchor of strength and solace to the families and countrymen of the victims of that day. Undoubtedly, religious affirmations of the afterlife and the immortal human soul will figure prominently in upcoming Sept. 11 memorial services nationwide, including the ones to be held locally in University Hall next Wednesday.
It is ironic that the suffering our country has endured at the hands of a gang of brainwashed fanatics has produced more an outpouring of faith among us than it has an influx in intellectual activities employing reason and rationality. For it is only through observation and reason that we may be even reasonably certain of the evil of the actions of the terrorists against us, and the necessity of our actions against them. Faith can give us no knowledge, by definition. Therefore it provides no objective way to judge the relative value of our liberal democracy over the theocratic dictatorship that is al Qaeda's aspiration. It is reason, based on a systematic observation and analysis of the world around us, that sets us apart from al Qaeda, and this fact deserves a good deal more attention than it gets.
Nearly all Americans hold the particular religious beliefs of American Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims to be superior to those of Osama bin Laden. They are correct, but not because any of the tenets of these American faiths is even slightly more or less likely to be true than bin Laden's. To begin with, faith is belief without evidence; by definition it's impossible to argue one faith's merit over another's based on a standard of truth when both have proudly built their foundations upon unsubstantiated claims in the first place. So if we are able to judge the comparative value of different faiths, we must do so objectively, based on the observable and quantifiable consequences that they actually cause among men.
Although we can't compare the validity of dogmas against one another, we can observe and compare the results that different religious tenets have upon human existence. Bin Laden can argue that God wanted the World Trade Center to be attacked, and a Christian can argue that it was a crime against God. We can't know which of them is correct, or whether they both are wrong. But we can know with certainty which type of belief leads to death, destruction and general misery. We do this by observing the results of the respective beliefs and by analyzing the concrete facts.
No one needs faith to see that bin Laden's brand of religion causes misery on Earth. It's a fact. Faith gives you the means to think that you are right, but reason based on observation is the only way you can know it with any certainty. Bin Laden has faith, but he's severely divorced from any knowable reality. If we can agree that we should generally avoid creating misery whenever possible, we have a sufficient working standard by which we can judge his actions.
The uniquely human capacity to systematically observe and analyze the world is the single tool that can give an impartial observer any hope of deciding truth and justice among men. It allows anyone to see, independent of faith, who actually is more moral by a standard of causing general misery: the advocate of liberal democracy or the supporter of fundamentalist theocracy. There are real consequences that come under both systems. The underlying theologies, the perceived whims of a God who may or may not exist, are all speculation. But the lashes and the beatings and the dehumanization that fall on the heads of a populace under a regime like the Taliban are all too real.
As a secular nation, we have to hold only reason based on observation as our motive of action. We must conduct ourselves based on the reality that we know, not on the dogmas of some age-old mysticisms that have no more probability of truth in them than the axioms spouted by half-crazed Mullahs huddled in caves outside Kandahar.
Whether deciding to grant equal rights to all humans or to allow stem cell research, we cannot allow consideration of an unknowable afterlife or indefinable Divine Will to enter the equation. We can't live by a certain faith without deciding, free of the benefit of evidence, whose faith to consider. Thankfully, reason and rational observation set us free by giving us the power to live on the terms of real life.
Reason bolstered by observation, then, is the tool that makes America greater than Hussein's Iraq or a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. It allows us to live and act on the basis of what is, not on the arbitrary metaphysical assumptions of a charlatan in a dirty robe.
We necessarily are superior in reason, not in faith, to the lunatics who brought down the World Trade Center. To forsake the one faculty that is our greatest distinguishing characteristic and to run for shelter in the shadowy underworld of unsubstantiated belief is a course of action better suited to a man like bin Laden than to educated citizens of a great nation such as ours. When you're holding a candle and singing kumbaya in University Hall next week, remember how it is you know you're on the right side.
(Anthony Dick is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at adick@cavalierdaily.com.)
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