Sunday 12 June 2011

Thought experiment

Let's say that religious beliefs became 'true' if and only if the believer also believed something untrue -- in the existence of Santa Claus, for instance. Would the benefit of have a true God to believe in outweigh the problem of believing something untrue? Might it be that the 'truth' of God is an all or nothing thing, dissolved by any untruth? Or would it be the case that the benefit of coming closer to God cancelled not only notional untruths in one's life (believing in Santa Claus might be naive, but it is hardly malign) but also actual evils: racist beliefs, genocidal beliefs, beliefs that cruelty and sadism must govern human interaction and so on?

1 comment:

Matt Hilliard said...

If a God who works all things to the good is the religious truth one "buys" with a second, untrue belief, the untrue belief must be more beneficial to the believer than a belief in whatever the truth is.