Topics Religion

Question Is it fair to compare a belief in God(s) to a belief in fairies?

Accepted:
December 3, 2009

Comments

As far as reasons for believing in either are concerned, I'd say they're on a par. But there is a difference: many more people believe in God. And they can't help it; and, if you try to talk them out of it, you're generally going to fail. If you belittle their beliefs with a comparison that they would regard as offensive, the only effect will be to upset or aggravate them: and, other things being equal, that's not to be recommended.

It seems to me that anyone who would wish to state that the reasons people have to believe in God are "on a par" with the reasons they have to believe in fairies owes a bit more than just an expression of opinion. I don't know of any remotely good reason to believe in fairies, nor of any books (or even articles) written on the subject by intelligent people. You may think the many reasons people have given over the centuries---folks like Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, and Leibniz, just to mention the obvious authors in the western philosophical tradition---aren't ultimately convincing. But to compare their arguments to the sort of reasons people have to believe in fairies is frankly just silly. But then, I'm probably just upset or aggravated.

So let us be thoughtful for a moment. First, belief in God and belief in fairies could presumably be compared in various ways. But the intention is surely to compare the two beliefs on the basis of why people believe in God. Now, outright to compare the beliefs then would seem to presuppose that there is something quite general to be said about why people believe in God. But I don't see any reason to think there is any such general thing to be said. Many people probably do believe in God for reasons that aren't very good, and, more importantly, the God in whom they belief may seem like little more than a capricious sorcerer, to be feared but not respected, let alone loved.

But however common such a form of religious faith may be, there are plenty of other people who believe in God for reasons that go to the core of their own experience of the world and of themselves. Such faith is rooted in one's appreciation of the deepest truths about human existence, and it leads not to fear and a desperate desire to follow the rules but to a profound sense of unity in our fragility and brokenness and a yearning for a different way we might be together on this earth. This is the kind of faith that would sustain a Ghandi, a King, or a Mandela along the road to freedom, and I suppose it is up to each of us to ridicule it. But before you decide to go there, perhaps it would be worth learning a bit more about that kind of faith, so that one's comments about it do not display the very same level of ignorance one intended to lament.

Finally, let me add in passing that a large part of the problem here is that what belief in God involves is itself not terribly clear. It is certainly not simply to believe that God exists. I believe that cars exist, but I would hardly say that I believe in cars. It's even arguable that what we call "belief in God" doesn't even involve believing that God exists. Think of what it means to say that you believe in democracy, or in justice, or in music. And then go read Zoltan Gendler-Szabo's fascinating paper, "Believing in Things".

Compare the Blackwell or Routledge or Oxford or Cambridge Companions to philosohy of religion with Brewer's Dictionary of Prase and Fable entry Fairy.

Question Is it fair to compare a belief in God(s) to a belief in fairies? Accepted:December 3, 2009

Question Is it fair to compare a belief in God(s) to a belief in fairies?

Accepted:
December 3, 2009