Abstractions | What is Faith?
Table of Contents
TLDR - Summary
Religion, particularly traditional ones, serves as an abstraction of complex philosophies, much like layers in computing and mathematics. While these abstractions simplify concepts for the masses, they also require faith. This faith connects individuals to the accumulated knowledge and societal structures developed over millennia. Rejecting faith often leads to a disconnection from these deep-rooted philosophies, which have historically guided and improved human societies.
Important Context
At the outset, I’d like to clarify that I understand the potential of religion as a tool to control masses. Therefore, I’d like to distinguish between monotheistic religions (primarily the Abrahamic faiths) and traditional religions. The former is more of an anti-tradition compared to the latter, which is more natural, based on empirical evidence, and is a post hoc analysis of what works. This article focuses on traditional religions. With that in mind, let’s begin.
What are Abstractions?
In the World of Computers
We can use a computer analogy to understand abstractions.
At the fundamental level, computers run on electric signals—high and low. To simplify, we say binary (0 & 1) is the computer’s language. This is the first level of abstraction. While it’s possible to write instructions in binary, it’s easier to use something more English-like and convert it to binary. So we use assembly languages, and an assembler converts them to binary—a second layer of abstraction. We then use even more English-like languages and convert them into assembly, and so on. Finally, at the highest level of abstraction, we have a UI interface that anyone can use to give instructions to the computer.
These abstractions make it easier for us to instruct the computer, but each level also makes our interactions less powerful. We’ll keep this example in mind as we explore the rest of the idea.
In the World of Mathematics
Mathematics is the language we use to understand the real world around us. It uses numbers to represent real-world phenomena. What makes math exceptionally difficult is the limited opportunity to “feel” it. While basic arithmetic is easy to visualize, more advanced math becomes incredibly “abstract.” Beyond a certain point, it becomes impossible for the average person to visualize or feel math. Individuals gifted in math can express the real world in numbers. Someone like Newton has the ability to relate math to physical phenomena of the world.
Even though the average person can’t directly relate formulas to the real world, they can still use abstractions to avoid thinking about the underlying concept. Referring back to the computer example, a software programmer can work with programming languages and libraries without fully understanding the underlying architecture.
Faith
There are broadly two ways to understand any topic: you can feel it, or it’s down to your cognitive ability to think in abstractions.
However, in the absence of both, there’s a third way to utilize a complex system to your advantage—faith.
Even if the idea in question isn’t directly tied to any physical experience and you lack the cognitive ability to think in abstractions, you can put faith in a higher level of abstraction created by someone else. Just as the average user trusts the programmer who created the UI and uses the UI layer to achieve their goals, and students of math mostly utilize formulas they don’t fully understand, one can put faith in the higher abstracted layers of a complex system.
Religion
Tradition-based “folk religions” are not dogmatic. They perform a post hoc analysis of what works, which then turns into tradition. In the past, these religions have been the guiding principles of entire civilizations. From economics to family and the individual, religions have provided a complete framework. The modern interpretation of religion as personal worship of a “sky daddy” is naive and reductionist.
In reality, the existence of a higher being called “god” is of little consequence. Religion is a framework to govern societies. With this in mind, we can see interesting parallels in modern societies. Nations today follow a constitution, based on generally agreed-upon principles among the citizens. That a constitution isn’t objective truth can be inferred from the fact that countries have vastly different ideals set in their constitutions, yet they’re all still functional. Similarly, worship of the ideals set in a constitution is generally observed worldwide. A constitution is a sacred document for a country and is revered as such by its citizens.
Upon the Rejection of Faith
A religion is the abstraction of philosophies.
It aims to bring the realization of philosophical theories and principles to the masses and apply them to form and maintain a better society.
It is a method that has helped us for millennia to distinguish ourselves as a species unique in its thoughts and singular in its application of those thoughts. What it requires is faith.
The reason people who denounce faith suffer is that they disconnect themselves from the philosophies and human nature that comprise their culture. They abstain from millennia of thought, accumulated knowledge, and reflections. They remove themselves from the system designed for their specific needs by generations of ancestors, without realizing that their forebears designed and followed it so their progeny could have a better life and live by good morals, ensuring that the society their children inhabit is not morally apathetic.