| Part 1 The Theory of Faith | Hirohumi Hoshika |
Chapter 1 uses the term "Fact-based Faith" or some phrase that conveys this term several times. Although the meaning is mentioned either directly or indirectly in each section, the chapter ends without providing any kind of definition.
This concept is the counterpart to "Fact-Non-Dependent Ethics" in the next chapter, Chapter 2 (Argument 1-3, Supplement 2), and is also the precursor concept to "Historical Jesus T/R" in Chapter 4 (Consideration 3). Therefore, to aid in future understanding, I will provide a definition of it here.
When we consider the "correctness" of the Christian faith, there are two possibilities: it can mean that the content of the faith is in accordance with the facts of the world, or it can mean that the content of the faith is in accordance with the Bible.
The former is called "the validity of faith" and the latter "the orthodoxy of faith". When a faith has "validity," it is said that the "Fact-based Faith T (being True)" is maintained, and when it has "orthodoxy," it is said that the "Fact-based Faith R (relationship to Reality)" is maintained.
The concept "Fact-based Faith T" can be found in the Pauline epistles of the New Testament.
"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead." (1 Corinthians 15:14-15 NIV)
Here, what is required is that what is contained as fact in Christian preaching and faith is true in the light of facts. This refers to the correspondence between ideas and the outside world in a very common-sense sense: if Jesus' resurrection did not actually occur, then faith that asserts resurrection is false, and preaching this belief would amount to communicating a lie.
However, I call this the "Fact-based Faith" or "Fact-Dependent Faith" rather than simply the "correspondence of faith and fact," which is one of the standards of truth discussed in Part 2, Faith and Reason, Chapter 2, in order to make it clear that in the correspondence between faith and fact, faith depends on fact, and not the other way around.
It is meant by this that there is no such understanding of faith as “believing makes it true” in this treatise. In a faith that includes the factual recognition of the resurrection of Jesus, when that event is occurring in the real world and faith is established in response to that fact, then that faith preserves its "Fact-based Faith T".
Whether or not Jesus' resurrection actually happened is not something that faith can carry, and our believing it does not make it a fact. That is what the Bible tells us about the resurrection of Jesus, as such. Therefore, we must understand that if the resurrection of Jesus did not actually occur, Christianity has to collapse. Christianity, which has lost its basis in fact, is nothing more than a pseudo-religion.
The understanding of Christianity in this treatise is based on this position, and it is prepared for Christianity to collapse depending on the facts of the world. And it goes without saying that just as one cannot make facts that occur in the world disappear by denying them, one cannot protect the facts themselves by some kind of investigation to benefit a particular side. The truth is what the facts are and the facts take precedence over all belief and research.
"Fact-based Faith" is the factual dependence that we normally mean when we think of our beliefs as "believing them to be true" or "what we believe is correct". Therefore, the judgment about whether a belief satisfies "Fact-based Faith T" is made by the facts.
For this "Fact-based Faith T" to be valid, two premises are necessary.
First, the accounts of the Bible must be written as fact, regardless of their authenticity.
Second, our faith must take its biblical articles, written as fact, literally.
These two prerequisites for "Fact-based Faith T" are "Fact-based Faith R", and the former will be called "Fact-based Faith R0" and the latter "Fact-based Faith R1".
For faith to correspond to fact—that is, for the "Fact-based Faith T" model to hold true—faith must include beliefs related to facts, and the Bible, the source of those beliefs, must be written about facts. Like “Fact-based Faith T”, “Fact-based Faith R” is an ordinary definition.
Paul wrote the following about “myths” in his letters to Timothy and Titus:
"you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies." (1 Timothy 1:3-4 NIV)
"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly." (1 Timothy 4:7 NIV)
"and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth." (Titus 1:14 NIV)
The imaginary nature of this "myth" is stated in contrast to the factual nature of the "gospel" that Paul preached. In other words, the gospel that Paul preached to Timothy and Titus was not some kind of "myth" that was detached from the facts of the world, but was conveyed as a fact of reality.
This means that prior to presenting the gospel as true in the light of facts, it is presented as something related to the facts of the world, which corresponds to the "Fact-based Faith R0".
What "Fact-based Faith R0". requires of Christian faith, and as a result excludes, are not only the "myths" mentioned above, but also values that do not question whether they are based on fact or not, and types of faith and thought that are not set out to be based on fact.
For example, Kant did not recognize the value of "Fact-based Faith", seeing it as an instrumental, benefit-seeking faith based on the "Hypothetical Imperative" that says "If you want to achieve this, then do this." Kant values the "moral law within me"
Kant's moral faith is independent of external facts, but Christianity is related to the facts of the world through "Fact-based Faith R0" and therefore holds doctrines that can be challenged by scientific findings and may ultimately be proven false.
As church history demonstrates, Christianity is not a religion that can remain unscathed no matter what. Just as they were damaged by heliocentrism ever, its claims as to fact of the world may eventually be damaged.
What should be understood here is that before Christianity confronted the scientific knowledge of the time and competed for truth, by naming itself as such a competitor, it was expressing its own worldview as the kind of belief that could be judged as true or false in terms of the truth of world phenomena.
This "possibility of being false" - or "falsifiability" in Karl Popper's concept - is the sign that the gospel is related to the facts of the world. (See Part 2 Faith and Reason Chapter 3 Section 2-3)
Then, in order for our faith to reflect the "Fact-based Faith R0" (that is, that the events reported in Christianity are related to the real world), our faith would have to literally interpret the descriptions in the Bible, which are written as facts, and accept their literal meaning.
In this way, the "Fact-based Faith R0" in the Bible is directly transferred to our side and becomes "Fact-based Faith R1". It is the recognition as such of what the Bible states as fact, which results in the "orthodoxy" of the Christian faith that is sought here - the unity of faith and Scripture.
Thus, "Fact-based Faith R0" concerns the nature of the gospel of the Bible, while "Fact-based Faith R1" concerns the nature of our faith. The "Fact-based Faith R", which consists of "Fact-based Faith R0" and "Fact-based Faith R1", indicates the minimum nature of faith that must be maintained in order for Christian faith to be "correct".
No one knows whether the Christian faith is ultimately the correct perception of the world. We believe that the gospel conveyed in the Bible - that Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day - is the correct understanding of the events surrounding Jesus that took place in first-century Judea.
However, although, as we will show in Chapter 3, there is a subjective necessity that gives us the confidence to believe in that faith, from an objective point of view, it is at best an orthodox faith that satisfies the "Fact-based Faith R" and this is the limit of the correctness possible for our faith.
In faith, objective evidence for what one believes is not necessary, but subjective necessity is, and as we will see in Chapter 3, Christian faith is a faith in which we can have certainty and necessity. However, no matter how much subjective certainty one can have, whether that faith satisfies the "Fact-based Faith T" must be judged at the end of the world.
Now, this distinction between "Fact-based Faith T" and "Fact-based Faith R" provides a clear understanding of the faith - including erroneous view of the universe - of people in the Middle Ages, when science was underdeveloped.
Pre-modern Christians such as Thomas Aquinas supported the cosmological views of Ptolemy and Aristotle, and therefore interpreted biblical phrases relating to celestial bodies according to ancient Greek theories.
Writings such as the Psalms can be read as saying that the Earth is in the center of the universe, with the Moon, the Sun, and the other stars revolving around it. This was considered to be a suitable location for humans, who were created by God, to live in.
This "geocentric Christianity" came to be known to be false in light of the facts of the world. At this time, geocentric Christianity, which was determined to be false by the facts, was naturally a faith that did not meet the "Fact-based Faith T".
However, the fact that "geocentric Christianity" was such a "faith that can be wrong" shows that it was a faith related to facts, and therefore it can be said to have maintained "Fact-based Faith R0".
Furthermore, this "geocentric Christianity" can be said to maintain "Fact-based Faith R1" in that it takes literally the words of the Bible, which it is interpreted as recording facts.
"Geocentric Christianity" erred in the "Fact-based Faith T" because it reads the descriptions of heaven and earth in the Psalms and other books as factual descriptions rather than poetic descriptions, or because the authors of the Psalms themselves understood the state of heaven and earth in a geocentric way.
However, this is an error resulting from an error in biblical interpretation or understanding. The words of the Bible were accepted as they were by the people of that time, and as a result, the content of faith is consistent with the Bible. In that sense, "geocentric Christianity" satisfies the "Fact-based Faith R", or the "orthodoxy of faith".
The same can be said of the apocalyptic belief found in the New Testament that the end of the world is imminent. When a belief is said to be wrong, it can be incomplete in "Fact-based Faith T" yet complete in "Fact-based Faith R". Nevertheless, considering faith in general, it could be said that this is a troublesome aspect of religion.
Fact-based Faith T/R
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Fact-based Faith R | Fact-based Faith T |
| Pauline Basis |
(R0) The factuality of the Bible as non-idealism, as distinguished from "foolish myths". (R1) A faith that follows the R0 nature of the biblical article, i.e. a faith that takes the Bible literally. |
The fact-based faith as the agreement between the content of faith and fact, which is what Paul means when he says, "If there is no resurrection, our faith is false". For this to be fulfilled, it is necessary that (R0) the things written in the Bible as facts actually occurred, and that (R1) we have the faith to take the contents of those accounts literally as things that actually happened. "Fact-based Faith T" means that a faith that satisfies "Fact-based Faith R" is consistent with fact. |
| Judging entity |
(Orthodoxy) A faith established through the "Fact-based Faith R" corresponds to the content of the Bible. Judging entity is the Bible. |
(Validity) A faith that has "Fact-based Faith T" corresponds to facts in the world. Judging entity is the world. |
| The property of faith as to true/false | A faith that is related to facts and therefore can be true or false. | A faith that relates to facts and that is true. |
| Necessity in faith | "Fact-based Faith R" is necessary for the establishment of faith. | "Fact-based Faith T" is necessary for an established faith to be true. |
| Geocentric Christianity | Satisfying "Fact-based Faith R". | Contradicts "Fact-based Faith T". |
| Contemporary Faith | "Fact-based Faith R" can be satisfied. | "Fact-based Faith T" cannot be fully satisfied. |