Opening page…
The religion of your birthplace
If you had been born somewhere else, you would probably hold different religious beliefs just as sincerely. What should that possibility do to your confidence?
The origins of a belief do not automatically settle its truth. Still, the role of birthplace raises a challenge that sincerity alone cannot answer.
Your answer
A little context
Somewhere there is a person very like you, born the same year in a different country, who believes as sincerely as you do in a different faith, or in none. Had the hospital been somewhere else, you would probably have been that person. The question is what that thought should do to you.
Nearby questions
- If God is good, why do children suffer?A child suffers and dies, and nothing good comes of it that anyone can see. Believers have tried to answer this for as long as there has been belief.
- Would you want there to be an afterlife?Heaven, rebirth or nothing at all. Many people say yes at once, until they think about forever.
- What would it take for you to believe a miracle had happened?Hume asked which would be stranger: that nature's laws were broken, or that the witness was wrong. Decide what evidence could ever tip that balance.
- If you cannot know whether God exists, is it sensible to live as if God does?Pascal argued that the stakes make belief the better wager. The trouble is whether belief can be chosen for its payoff, and whether any god would want it chosen that way.
- Should you ever believe without evidence?W. K. Clifford said it is always wrong to believe anything on insufficient evidence. William James answered that some choices can't wait for proof.
