Why Should We Believe in Beliefs Without Empirical Proofs?
The question of whether we should believe in beliefs without empirical proofs is a complex one, deeply rooted in philosophy, religion, and the nature of truth itself. It would rather depend on what those beliefs might be because some unproven beliefs are more extraordinary than others.
Why Evidence is Crucial
Easy answer: Evidence is what should inform all of your beliefs. Without evidence, you have no method of vetting good and bad ideas. It is the cornerstone of any logical and reasoned approach to understanding the world around us.
The Qur'an's Perspective: Investigating the Path to Truth
The Qur'an, the religious scripture of Muslims, actually prohibits Muslims from blindly accepting beliefs without evidence. It pleads for Muslims to always investigate, cross-check, and obtain evidence about everything, even including their faith. This is to allow them to arrive at the truth, so as not to worship God in ignorance by mistakenly worshipping idols, deities, or humans thinking they are worshipping the one true God who created us and the universe from nothing.
For Muslims, mere belief without evidence is unacceptable.
The Nature of Truth and Self-Evident Knowledge
Truth in the final analysis is often inaccessible to reason or empirical proofs. But there is the notion of 'self-evident' truths, such as mathematical axioms like 'parallel lines do not meet' or 'all men are created equal', as stated in the U.S. Constitution.
How do such notions arise? Can we trust the 'feeling' that these things are indeed true? The correspondence between abstract mathematical notions and the real physical world suggests that there may be another means to absolute truth, the Mind, rather than physical observations.
But what is the Mind, and can we just take any intuition as trustworthy? We can engage in abductive reasoning: if these intuitions are true, what can we deduce, and then search for evidence to support or dismiss the deduction. This process can help revise or reinforce the original intuitions. However, not everyone has the capacity for such reasoning, nor the means and resources to search for evidence.
The Role of Revelation and the Soul
What if God created the world by His word, not a necessity? And you cannot deduce the color of my bedroom walls because you have no access to it. But if I reveal it to you, can you still know the color?
Similar to that, if God reveals His truth to us through the soul or mind, we can still know it even without empirical proof, provided the revelation is reliable. Peter's speech at the Pentecost is an example of such a revelation that led to a flowering of knowledge and a glimmer of truth, contributing to the growth of science.
It is also worth noting that our capacity for logical thought itself is a gift. If the starting premises of these logical thoughts are true, they will lead to more truths. However, one of the key starting points—God—also needs empirical proofs. If rejected, the view of truth becomes inaccessible, and belief becomes impossible.
Ultimately, the pursuit of truth is a complex interplay between reason, revelation, and the intuition of the mind. Trust in unproven beliefs can sometimes lead to profound discoveries and deepen one's understanding of the universe and one's place within it.