In a speech given at De Anza yesterday, Tony Blair said that faith will play an increasingly important role in world political affairs. He was talking about the rise of radical Islam, the tension between Arabs and Jews framed as a religious struggle for holy lands, of the many religious groups in China and reflecting also on the Troubles in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants.
But faith is not just about which god one believes in; faith is about believing in things that cannot be proven. Faith may, for example, be about the power of markets to cure all ills, or the ability of government to improve society; neither is definitively demonstrable. My faith is in the role of science as the best means we have of approaching true knowledge. "My religious faith is better than yours" is an unresolvable and therefore pointless statement; but that also makes it impossible to talk about issues when positions are based in faiths, whether it be the power of science vs religion in general, or in the power of the market s the role of government. Ideology in politics is as divisive and dangerous as it is in religion.
No comments:
Post a Comment