“No way of doing or thinking, however ancient, can be trusted without proof” (Walden, Henry David Thoreau). But what will I accept as convincing proof? Even Jesus gets impatient with those who expect signs and wonders. Don’t ideas speak for themselves?
Apparently not. Either we trust words even less nowadays, in which case verbal proofs count for less, or else other kinds of proof carry more weight for us. And in the end for me it’s often the people themselves of a faith community who offer the most convincing proof. I read recently that 99% of people who grow up in a Muslim culture remain at least culturally Muslim. Likewise for Christians. We are much less free to choose on the basis of proof or conviction than we may like to think, especially in a largely monolithic culture where genuine choice does not exist. Instead, we erect a posteriori proofs for others about ways of thinking which we ourselves already have found congenial — which we may have adopted for reasons other than the strictly spiritual, or rational, or whatever criteria we announce to the world.
