Transcript (edited for clarity):

Episode V: Finding Faith

[00:00] Genie: What knowledge can we have without making assumptions? I think this question can honestly answer itself, in the sense that if we have any faith or any doubt in anything at all, then we are functioning under the key assumption that we have to acquire knowledge. We have to have some sort of acceptance of some form of truth, and in order for that truth to exist we have to have faith in the first place, and we turn towards a lot of different metrics for objectifying that faith, but that faith is inherently a subjective reality that exists in the world, and that is a notion that human beings acquire and develop over time as we evolve as Darwin's theory, sort of suggests in that sense. 

[00:50] Henry: I think Descartes's ultimate goal of starting from like a tabula rasa, starting completely from scratch improving anything, was ultimately misguided because to gain any sort of knowledge you need to rely on some sort of belief, some sort of assumptions, and even Descartes relies on assumptions in his supposedly self-sufficient logic. I can think of many examples of him relying on assumptions, but the first main assumption is that he's thinking, he's existing. And now, even that his logic is coherent and he can be understood, and while he can't but believe that he is correct in many things, that is making some assumptions on his own behalf for the sake of knowledge. 

[01:45] Genie: And it's also important to note that belief is the primary tool that's required to gain knowledge, and without belief, we have absolutely nothing to rely on, and without knowledge, we don't know anything that we can rely on, and so ultimately we can't verify the truth of any premise, whether that be the existence of God, whether that be this very statement that I'm making right now, without solving the initial problem of God's existence. It cannot turn itself into a problem that can be solved in any external factor outside of that. 

[02:26] Henry: And I think really what belief truly is it doesn't just refer to God, and doesn't refer to faith. It refers to that whatever argument you're making for some sort of truth or knowledge, it's simply that you believe that the premises of your argument are correct. Now, you can have any sort of valid argument, but ultimately it can't be true (you can’t know it to be true) without correct premises, and belief bridges the gap between a valid argument and [] a valid argument with premises that you can believe to be acceptable. 

[03:07] Genie: And I think this is where the idea of skepticism comes into play, because as human beings, it's within our nature to accept certain things as the truth, to accept belief and have faith, because when we're first born, we generally tend to believe that the people around us are our parents, we want to believe that there is so many things in the world. We want to believe that candy is good and that Santa Claus exists, but we come to realize these things aren't necessarily true when we grow up, and yet because this lack of skepticism exists, we turn it into a general truth. It's the watch that was a conceptualization of time. We can't say that the watch was a preexisting object before someone brought it into existence, but now that it is in existence, we just tend to accept that this is how we tell time, that when I look at the top right corner of my MacBook screen, it's as 10:06 a.m. and we accept that as the truth because we lack skepticism to the level that, if we exist, we must have some sort of belief in knowledge. 

[04:14] Henry: Yes, I think you need to have a certain amount of grounds to disagree with something. While skepticism of Descartes's nature can be useful, ultimately, even when you're disagreeing with someone, you're still agreeing with them in many ways. Right, if I'm talking to you about Descartes's arguments and then you start talking about something completely unrelated, we're not having a conversation. We're not having a disagreement. We're not talking about the same thing. So ultimately two people have to agree on the subject they're talking about and on the type of arguments and frameworks that are acceptable in order for disagreement to take place. So, if you look at the nature of philosophical thought and philosophical discourse, agreement is necessary for any disagreement to occur in the first place. 

[05:07] Genie: And I think this ultimately proves faith through the lens of people in a society.