![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2022\/07\/Webb-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI had not yet looked at the spectacular images from the Webb telescope at the time\u2014this fellow\u2019s comment prompted me to look. I was as blown away as everyone else who has seen them. But noting that he said the images confirmed something he had believed for a long time, his comment made me think about something else.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Me: <\/strong>your conviction is a choice, just as any foundational belief is.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Where do our foundational convictions come from? Do we shape them according to evidence, or do we more often pick, choose, and shape evidence to fit our already-existing convictions? I know, these sound like classroom questions (and they frequently are in my courses)\u2014but knowing the undergraduate education the commenter and I shared, I hoped for a thoughtful response. I was not disappointed.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Him<\/strong>: I choose to seek and follow the truth, based on empirical observation and wide reading. That\u2019s the funny thing about choosing to seek and follow the truth. It may lead you to certain beliefs, conclusions and convictions that you wish you didn\u2019t believe. Because existence would be so much more bearable and pleasant without them. But you have no choice. The truth is the truth, no matter where it leads you.<\/li>\n
- Him again<\/strong>: Also, my devotion and loyalty to the truth requires me to be open and receptive to experiences or information that might challenge, change and modify my beliefs and convictions. If it turns out that I\u2019m wrong about God, the universe or anything else, I will cheerfully change my views and beliefs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There is much of value in these responses, starting with a praiseworthy dedication to the pursuit of truth wherever it might lead no matter what the area of pursuit. Commitment to actually changing one\u2019s mind concerning what is and is not true on the basis empirical observation and wide reading is similarly praiseworthy.<\/p>\n
But such a pursuit never happens in a vacuum. In my conversations with atheists over the years, I have found that their most frequent criticism of persons of faith is that such people always start with a belief in place, then seek to fit selected data into that belief framework, warping some data and fully ignoring other data if they don\u2019t fit preconceptions. My response is not to claim that, on the contrary, faith is \u201cobjective\u201d\u2014it is anything but. My response is rather that there is no such thing as an \u201cobjective\u201d observer\u2014the pursuit of truth and the building of a belief system is much more complicated (and interesting) than that. That applies equally to persons of faith, atheists, and every other human being.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Me<\/strong>:\u00a0There are many truths I believe in that I wish were otherwise. My comment is not about truth, though. It\u2019s about confirmation bias. You see the Webb photos and they confirm something that is a \u201clong-held conviction.\u201d No surprise there. Another person looks at precisely the same photos and finds that they confirm their belief in an awesome and powerful creating God. No surprise there either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2022\/07\/Webb-3-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow is it that two people of good faith, looking at and considering the very same new data, can conclude that the new data confirms \u201clong held convictions\u201d that happen to be entirely contradictory? The answer at least partially lies in realizing that no one is exclusively, or even primarily, data driven. With apologies to John Locke, no one is a tabula rasa<\/em>, a blank slate. What even counts as a fact or as truth is shaped by belief frameworks that often reflect experiences that we may not even be aware of.<\/p>\n
Just to be clear, I am one of those people who look at the Webb images and find that they immediately confirm my belief in an awesome and creating Deity. I do not<\/strong> believe that it is useful or productive for anyone to use such images or new scientific discoveries in an attempt to convince others of the existence (or non-existence) of God\u2014such \u201cproofs\u201d never work. And my impression was that neither the commenter nor I were seeking to do that. We were simply expressing our convictions.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Me again<\/strong>: Your \u201clong-held convictions,\u201d as well as anyone else\u2019s, are established by far more than \u201cempirical evidence and wide reading.\u201d I have no desire for a debate\u2013the essay is an expression of my own perspective. Not asking you to share it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why was I not (am I not) interested in a debate or argument, especially given that such arguments are so endemic to social media? Because a discussion about where one\u2019s \u201clong-standing convictions\u201d come from requires more than sound bites. I have no idea how the commenter\u2019s long-standing conviction that \u201cthe universe is a cold, mindless, soulless void without purpose or meaning\u201d developed\u2014I\u2019m sure it has been informed and shaped by a lifetime of experiences. I\u2019m still working on how to explain\u2014to myself primarily, but also to others\u2014why I believe in an awesome and creating God in the face of what on the surface seems to be so much contrary evidence. I\u2019ve essentially been working on that for the ten years of this blog\u2019s existence and longer. The best I can say is what Rachel Held Evans used to say: This is the story that I\u2019m willing to be wrong about. I would love to have a lengthy conversation about our long-standing convictions with the commenter sometime. But not on social media.<\/p>\n
I was pleased and satisfied with our final exchange.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Him<\/strong>: Fair enough, all your points are valid. There can be no debate between two persons who basically inhabit utterly different realities. That said, you are 100% entitled to express your own perspectives and beliefs and not only do I respect them, but I\u2019ll always strive to comprehend and understand them.<\/li>\n
- Me<\/strong>:\u00a0Thanks for your comments\u2013I appreciate them a great deal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sometimes the best thing that can happen at the end of a conversation between two people with incompatible long-standing convictions is respectfully wishing each other a good day and walking away. What made this brief exchange both enjoyable, illuminating, and peaceful is that neither of us was threatened by the other. I do not have an agenda for his improvement, and I did not perceive that he had such an agenda for me. Imagine that.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Commenting on a new blog essay that I wrote while on retreat last summer, a Facebook acquaintance who is a fellow graduate of the Great Books program at St. John\u2019s College wrote the following. Him: I don\u2019t believe in your God nor in the notion that God or any entity created the universe. The new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":27109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,20,34,35,39,40,68,73,84,90,91,1070,101,103],"tags":[141,164,221,383,432,482],"class_list":["post-31073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-2","category-beauty","category-belief","category-change","category-facebook","category-faith","category-friends","category-god","category-mystery","category-philosophy","category-science","category-st-johns-college","category-stories","category-thinking","category-truth","category-wonder","tag-beauty","tag-change","tag-faith","tag-philosophy","tag-science","tag-truth"],"yoast_head":"\n
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- Me<\/strong>:\u00a0Thanks for your comments\u2013I appreciate them a great deal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Him<\/strong>: Fair enough, all your points are valid. There can be no debate between two persons who basically inhabit utterly different realities. That said, you are 100% entitled to express your own perspectives and beliefs and not only do I respect them, but I\u2019ll always strive to comprehend and understand them.<\/li>\n
- Me again<\/strong>: Your \u201clong-held convictions,\u201d as well as anyone else\u2019s, are established by far more than \u201cempirical evidence and wide reading.\u201d I have no desire for a debate\u2013the essay is an expression of my own perspective. Not asking you to share it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Him again<\/strong>: Also, my devotion and loyalty to the truth requires me to be open and receptive to experiences or information that might challenge, change and modify my beliefs and convictions. If it turns out that I\u2019m wrong about God, the universe or anything else, I will cheerfully change my views and beliefs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Him<\/strong>: I choose to seek and follow the truth, based on empirical observation and wide reading. That\u2019s the funny thing about choosing to seek and follow the truth. It may lead you to certain beliefs, conclusions and convictions that you wish you didn\u2019t believe. Because existence would be so much more bearable and pleasant without them. But you have no choice. The truth is the truth, no matter where it leads you.<\/li>\n