Faith, the Building Block

Chris Gorham
Dr. Adam Johns
Seminar in English Composition
16 September 2008
Faith, the Building Block

"What is religion?" is the most meaningful question one can gather from Lee Silver's "Challenging Nature," because it gets to the heart of why people view the world as they do. People's actions are direct results of their beliefs and faith, clearly shown through many of the ceremonies and traditions that Silver describes. Even in modern society, religion continues to be a tremendous underlying factor behind terrorism and genocide, with many terrorists believing that God will reward them for punishing America. It is important to realize that every person has faith in something, and that faith, as Silver shows, is one of the most substantial reasons for why humans act in the way they do. Possibly, religion and the faith incorporated in it acts accordingly. The elements of religion, like the ones Silver noted upon, are seldom changed because these faith driven elements hold too much faith among its followers. As technology becomes more complex and more sophisticated, however, people question these beliefs to a greater extent to the point where some are actually refuted. The future of religion therefore rests completely on the faith of people under the circumstances that much of their beliefs are being contradicted by modern technology.

Silver’s phrase, “The sun has "risen" every morning of my life and everyone else's life, and this fact provides a powerful empirical foundation for thinking that it will continue to do so for the rest of my life," provides a powerful display of faith. Although we may have faith in something, does that really grant it credence? How sure can we be that the sun will rise tomorrow? We only have faith that it will rise the next morning because what other assumption could we make after seeing it rise every day. Like the sun rises every day, no one questions its reliability because nothing has been disproved to the followers thus far. One example already of this technological advance now is how the Pope denies the fact the plausibility of fourty foot long fish and the idea of Noah’s ark noted in the Bible.

These scientific realizations, many contradicting the beliefs held by religions brings upon an interesting question. Where will religion stand centuries from now? Maybe the people then will see religion as a past fetish of previous generations. The story "Challenging Nature" gives many key examples on how technology could be the eventual cause of the downfall of religion or contradiction of many of the beliefs held by present and past religious minds. However, one example in particular is when Silver discusses the advanced technology of the Japanese through their fascinating invention of the Aibo and Qrio models by Sony

Consider this brief description of the Qrio from the Sony Company who developed it,
"QRIO is a humanoid robot, equipped with the latest in advanced recognition, motional control communications, information technology, and artificial intelligence. Its programming allows it to protect itself should it lose balance, and should it fall, it checks front and back, left and right, before getting up without any assistance. It can distinguish individual faces and voices, and can learn and memorize new words. Sony explains that QRIO can also communicate with people based on internal judgments, and express feelings through movements, conversations, and the use of a lighting system."
It would seem to many that these humanoid robots have a mind capacity equal to, if not more than a newborn infant. Is it possible that our technology is starting to decode the "secret of the mind" that "belongs rightly to the Judeo-Christian God?" In many religions, the spirit is of individuality and God's creation and no one can disprove that. However, this case is one step closer to showing that perhaps with enough scientific knowledge, we can create what we are. The famous quote by Rene Descartes, “I think therefore I am,” brings to mind the idea that maybe thinking and being isn’t a novelty granted by God. These humanoid robots border the line of thought and mind very close to the point where it is actually arguable to say that instead of being God’s creation, the mind is simply a complex part of science.
Furthermore, it could even go to show that the soul or spirit humans have so much faith in is non-existent, or only a figment of a physical compilation of mix matched neurons. What would be the repercussions of the realization that a soul or spirit is nonexistent? Most likely, the discovery of humans absent of spirit and soul would cause a huge loss in faith as well as the possible down fall of religion as a whole.

As mentioned earlier, religion has always been built on pure faith. As Silver states, "Faith of one kind or another is the bedrock foundation on which nearly all organized religions are built. In the Christian Bible, faith is defined explicitly as "the confident assurance that what we hope for what is going to happen; [faith is] the conviction of things not seen." The scriptures go on to explain that if you have faith in Jesus-even in the absence of any observable facts-God will eventually reward you by turning your hope for a good life, or afterlife, into reality."
Using Christianity as an example, it is safe to say that faith is a huge part of any religion, not just Christianity. The part of this statement that blows my mind is, "if you have faith in Jesus-even in the absence of any observable facts." What will happen when there are observable facts pointing against the words of Jesus? What happens when the faith one has is being contradicted by modern technology and it is proven that God is not required to make humans. Instead, all that is needed is some complex technology.

This question of faith brings up one important question. What would one do when confronted with the facts that disprove or contradict the beliefs they have been taught to follow? Ultimately, the answer to this question will be the deciding factor behind the future of religion. On one side, people may concede to the improved knowledge put upon them and question their previous faith in contradicted beliefs. This process of “giving in to science” would inevitably lead to a serious downfall in religion because its reliability would be tempered with causing many to withdraw from believing in something that may not be true. Aside from the individual humans choice, the criticism religion as a whole would receive would turn away many of its followers. It is often difficult for people to take stand behind something whose claim to righteousness has been sullied.

The outcome of religion could, however, depend on another brand of people, the truly faithful. These people who are hardly phased by technology and its discoveries may see these contradictions merely as road bumps in their faith journey. Japan’s humanoid robots may simply be a part of fate, something that is supposed to happen. It could be a test from a higher being to determine the truly faithful. Those individuals who do not succumb to the influential powers of science hold a true faith to their beliefs.

Faith has many different functions. In the day to day lives of humans, faith is present to make an influential assumption of something that will happen. It is also most notably the main building block of religion because of religions overall uncertainty. Humans use faith to take belief in some belief for comfort in the day to day troubles of life. How would humans cope with death, disaster or turmoil without faith that it is meant to be or that it can be explained on some larger scale? Technology’s increasing advancement and efficiency, however, has started to threaten religious faith by coming closer to disproving some of the fundamental beliefs in religion. Religion’s endurance to these new found interpretations will determine its overall length of survival as the faith of many may keep religion alive long enough for its reputation to return. Without those truly faithful people, however, religions life span may be cut short by the intruding realizations of a more developed and reliable field of science.