THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF USING FAITH AS A BASIS FOR KNOWLEDGE IN RELIGION AND HISTORY
the credibility of using faith as a basis for knowledge

St. Marys Senior High School Calgary, AB Canada

Michael Hung IB Candidate Number 000403-057 Word Count: 1598

Candidate 000403-057 Theory of Knowledge Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram. The relationship between faith and knowledge has been one filled with both conflict and harmony, and has been one long withstanding since the dawn of recordable sentience. Faith is fundamentally a belief a very strong belief in something that is intangible and lies beyond the realm of evidence and proof. It is a powerful motivator, a source of inspiration, and a guiding hope. When hand in hand with knowledge, the empirical observation and analysis of the tangible, often requiring definitive evidence and sound logic to be even considered credible, a powerful combination is created. Faith is an irrefutable part of most, if not all of knowledge, whereas knowledge is necessary to reach moral and ethical understandings and practices of faith. The purpose of both faith and knowledge is one alone to obtain the truth. Faith is prevalent in everyday life. The average first-world citizen living in an industrial city naturally takes many things for granted a natural and sometimes unconscious demonstration of faith. For example, the citizen knows that they will have constant electrical power supplied to their house so long as they pay the bills. However, how could the citizen possibly know that? The citizen does not need to think about such things, and instead places faith in those responsible for the power distribution there is a presence of faith in the operators of the power grid and the power plants, in the electrical engineers responsible for the innovation of electricity, et cetera. This same citizen may ride the bus to work every morning. The citizen thus places faith in the driver of the bus to be on time and to drive safely, in the employees of the factory from which the bus was manufactured, in the mechanical engineers that designed the bus, and so on. Then, this faith is compromised something unexpected compromises one or more of the things that the citizen has placed faith in, thereby evoking the state of shock, disbelief, and confusion. The electricity is cut for one or more unexplained reasons and the faith the citizen had in those responsible for the power distribution of the city is damaged. The driver of the bus is late or drives dangerously, evoking contempt and anxiety from the citizen. Faith is not absolute. It does not guarantee

Candidate 000403-057 Theory of Knowledge any truths. It only convinces the individual of relative and subjective truths truths that may only seem true to the person in question. Note that all the above examples had linked faith to knowledge in some manner. There, knowledge was a requirement a basis for the faith. According to the biblical book of Romans (10:17), So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In other words, ones faith comes from hearing the word of God and thus presumably the practise of what they hear without the preliminary process (oft referred to as the scientific method) of questioning why or how, or its implications. However, if one does not understand the Word, its implications, and its context, then the only thing one could possibly be having faith in is ones own imagination. Those who would exploit the freedom of religion and thus, certain phrases in their primary religious texts to suit their situations would not only be an example of the misuse and misapplication of faith, but also a demonstration of ignorance of both the doctrines of their school of faith and of moral and ethical standards in the average modern society. There are also those who would claim their school of faith teaches the absolute truth, using the teachings of their faith to justify it the vicious cycle; We know that God exists because the Bible tells us so. We thus know that the Bible is true because it is the word of God. Debatably, faiths only strength is when correctly applied to orthodox religion. Belief in a reward system for doing good deeds and a punishment system for sinning can be an effective motivator to live morally and ethically. However, Mahatma Ghandis principles speak differently that one should be doing good things for the sake of doing good things, not for a reward or out of fear of punishment, or even for image. However, what of using faith as the basis for knowledge? Throughout history, it is evident that it was the very defiance of this sort of mindset that most, if not all, of the technological, medical, mathematical, scientific, conceptual, moral, and ethical advancements and innovations were achieved. It is because citizens namely scientists and other educated citizens were unsatisfied with the explanations given by faith for knowledge that allowed for the concept of geocentrism to evolve into the concept of

Candidate 000403-057 Theory of Knowledge heliocentrism. They strived to understand why they should believe in something. They sought a reason. They could not be content with uninformed faith alone. That is not to say, however, that uninformed faith was devoid in any manner from any mind. For centuries, western European monarchs were collectively regarded as the closest to God along with the Church and its bishops and popes. In accordance with their divine right as kings, their word was absolute, unquestioned, and was the utmost final word. The majority of the populace, unable to afford education, placed faith in their monarch, as they lacked the knowledge and power to comprehend or prevent any complex heinous or atrocious plots and exploits. Those who lived under the early days of the Third Reich Adolf Hitlers fascist regime placed faith in his ability to return Germany to its former glory. Radicals such as those of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group fully believe that what they are doing is right, and their unshakeable faith in their doctrine enables them to become suicide bombers. Adherents to the Roman Catholic Church had so much faith in their truths that they had become stubborn, obstinate, inflexible, and close-minded to new (albeit radical) ideas and second opinions that challenged the norm instead of seeking definite evidence of why the proposed idea did not work this is seen especially in Galileo Galileis case, where his proposal and his defense landed him under house arrest. Yet, using faith as a basis for knowledge can sometimes be something unavoidable, even if it is often considered inferior to (ideally) using knowledge as a justification for knowledge. In fact, it could even be said that it is it is necessary to use faith as a basis for knowledge. This is because we, as subjective individuals, have very little ways of knowing if our knowledge is actually true knowledge. As seen in the example of Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church, the adherents were so utterly convinced that their truth was, in fact, truth, when in reality they couldnt be farther from it. However, prior to that, their truth was the truth. That being said, modern society places large amounts of faith on the knowledge we obtain on a daily basis. People with convenient access to the Internet often use Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia edited

Candidate 000403-057 Theory of Knowledge by its users, to obtain information about a certain subject. Often times, the average user will simply read the article and dismiss it as the truth without bothering to check its citations, if any. The average user reads even information tagged with the superscript [citation needed] as accurate. How can we be sure that the information gleaned from such a source, or even reliable primary sources such as published books by renowned authors and professors, are in fact reliable? It is nigh impossible to know for certain. That is the reason why we rank reliability based on the credibility of a source. Wikipedia, editable by users (though moderated by moderators), is not as reliable a source as a hard-copy publication by some renowned professor. A blog post or a magazine article cannot be as reliable as the words straight from an interviewees mouth. This reliance on credibility is an example of faith, and thus from this faith comes our knowledge. Another example of the reliance on credibility for knowledge stems from the fact that very little about human history and the history of the world within which we live in is actually recorded as irrefutable information, especially in early periods of history and during times of war. After all, history is written by the victors. The nature of recorded history quite unfortunately censors much of actual events, mainly for the purposes of indoctrination (i.e. censorship of the atrocities committed by a country in order to keep face with the students of the same country) and other such reasons. As such, there are those who will place faith in these records as the truth, and those who will study the context of the records and parallel records, if any, by other involved parties. Thus, the weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge as opposed to relying solely on knowledge are chiefly the fact that knowledge gleaned using faith as a justification or medium often results in a relative and/or subjective truth a truth that is not guaranteed to be true, especially in faith and in terms of knowing about history. Believing that this truth is in fact true may lead to the abuse and exploitation of said truth. The credibility of knowledge is determined alone by faith, and is ranked according to the source. Faith alone is very subjective, and when applied to the scientific method, can be quite detrimental. Despite these, however, there are strengths of using faith as a basis for knowledge, and they lie within the

Candidate 000403-057 Theory of Knowledge doctrines of religions. To do something good because one believes it is good as it is taught that this something is actually good, and that doing good can only be beneficial and rewarding in a religious and moral way.