Could it be that the supposed rift between faith and reason is illusory, and that science and religion ? even atheism itself ? are overlapping expressions of the primacy of faith in all human activity?
Rick Wingrove, co-founder of the 300-member Beltway Atheists, speaks of the presumed antithetical relationship between science and religion. “There is a dichotomy; they are polar opposites,” he said. “We don?t say, ?We believe.? We say, ?We think.? ”
“Science is the only methodology that exists for the discovery and elevation of knowledge. Religion can?t prove the sky is blue.”
But can science even prove that the sky is blue in the sense that “blueness” is an objective reality whose validity is confirmed by subjective agreement on what “blueness” is?
Aren?t the empirical and rational methods of science ? and its putative claim to exclusivity as a way of knowing ? themselves constrained and biased by the existential fact that not only science but human perception itself is a subjective, circular system with no extra-sensory way of checking its accuracy and validity?
“Yes, because it?s a closed system,” said Senior Rabbi Steven Fink of Baltimore?s Temple Oheb Shalom. “And when you have a closed system, the postulates of that system rest on faith that the system is correct. How can we stand outside the system and view it differently? It?s not possible.”
A proposition with antecedents in Buddhism, Christian Science and Bishop George Berkeley?s subjective idealism, the larger solipsistic theory of existence presupposes the primacy of faith to all human activity ? with reason playing a refining, supporting role ? though such generic faith would not be limited to matters solely religious or spiritual.
Given the rarity of primary source verification for most things humans operate on daily, everything would seem to be faith-based in principle, which may say something about the meaning and purpose of human existence.
“I?ve gone through all the different arguments for the existence of God, and for me at least, it comes down to you have to make a leap of faith somewhere,” said Dr. Robert Freedman of Baltimore Hebrew University.
But what of science’s faith quotient?
“We operate on certain basic assumptions all the time,” Freedman allowed. “What is the given? Is what you see with your own eyes the given?… But I think what you see with your own eyes can normally be verified.”
