Tim Rudolph's Chapter 4 Journal
KEY IDEA OF THE WEEK
The key idea of this week is that faith affects the way we live our lives. As seen in the article "Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber", we can become so wrapped up in our faith that we are willing to die for it. The class decided that Marwan was had much more faith than any of us did, but that faith isn't always a good thing. In The Mission, Fr. Gabriel and Rodrigo Mendoza show faith by supporting the South American natives when they fight the Portuguese. In the ensuing battle, both Rodrigo and Gabriel were killed. This taught us that even good faith can lead to death. Also in The Mission, Gabriel and Rodrigo stay with the Indians even though they know they will be excommunicated, which suggests that sometimes faith is more important than religion. However, we learned from the Reading Book that both nihilism and radicalism are usually bad, and that it is best to be somewhere between the two.
3 IDEAS TO REMEMBER
1. Faith is the Golden Way.
Faith is the balance between beliefs and reason. It means using reason to support beliefs. Nihilists, who claim that they believe in absolutely nothing, are on one end of the spectrum and radicals, who believe strongly in something but without evidence, are on the opposite end of the spectrum. But faith is somewhere near the center of the spectrum. Faith uses both reason and beliefs as a way of looking at the world. But believing too strongly in anything, especially something with little evidence, is bad because we all have to be intellectually humble and admit that we are imperfect. Faith allows uncertainty and doubt if the evidence points in another direction.
This is important to remember because we are all radical sometimes and nihilistic at other times. Sometimes we are overconfident in ourselves and later find out that we were entirely wrong, which leads to much embarrassment. We need to remember to be honest with ourselves and admit that we make mistakes. But sometimes we are almost nihilistic in our actions, refusing to trust somebody because we don't have any evidence that they are trustworthy. But we have to learn to trust people we don't know because trust is a key characteristic of any relationship. Without trust we would all be paranoid and nobody would have any friends. But the best option is faith, which combines traits of nihilism and radicalism. With faith, we can trust to a certain extent and also base our actions off of evidence by using reason to support our beliefs.
2. Conflicting viewpoints should be judged without bias.
The interview with Louise Richardson taught us that different people see things in different ways. Louise said that the Irish terrorists who she had been taught were heroes were actually considered murderers by the English. Louise's handed-down faith led her to believe that they were heroes simply because the Irish told her that they were. But if she had been able to see the argument from both sides, she might have been able to decide for herself whether they were heroes or not. But because she was Irish, Louis assumed that what her family said was the truth, and she based her faith on this idea. In Bob Dylan's song "With God On Our Side", he explains how in every war America thought that God was on its side. But he also says that in World War II the Germans thought that God was on their side. But God cannot be on both sides. However, because they both want to raise moral and support for the war, they say that God is on their side. But if the Germans had stepped back and looked at the whole picture, they might have been able to see that God would never support their actions in the Holocaust and that God couldn't possibly have been on their side.
This is important to remember because history seems to repeat itself as every army, all the way back to the Greeks and beyond, thinks that God supports them. But we need to remember that sometimes we are on the wrong side of the battle, so we shouldn't listen when people try to decide who God is supporting. We need to look at both sides of every war before choosing who is right and who is wrong. We can't just assume that God is on our side because, as Dylan says in his song, we do bad things in wars, like killing Indians and Jews. We need to be aware of this trap and make sure we don't fall victim to it.
3. Faith can lead to evil.
The interview with the suicide bomber made it very clear that the man had lots of faith. But the suicide bomber is willing to kill civilians in order to go to paradise, so how could he possibly have faith? The interview taught me that faith can be bad, as it is with the bomber. He has absolute faith that Allah will accept him if he completes his mission. But his absolute faith is leading him to do terrible things, like killing innocent bystanders. His faith almost makes him a radical, as he is even willing to die for his religion. But it is still faith because he uses the evidence to make his decision while radicals often ignore certain pieces of evidence.
This is important to remember because usually people consider faith a good thing. But it is important to remember that we might be wrong in our belief, even if we do have faith. We need to accept the possibility that we are wrong so that we are not driven to do evil. If the suicide bomber has any doubt in Allah, he wouldn't be willing to die so readily for his religion. But as long as we are aware of the dangers of absolute faith we should be able to easily recognize the difference between faith and radicalism.
MY BIG QUESTION