WOK: Faith

When you’re talking about faith, one effective approach is to discuss what faith means. This is effective because many people have an idea of faith that is actually only one way of defining the idea, when there are many to choose from. To some people their idea of faith might be religious, for example faith in God. Faith in God is called theistic faith. However, religious faith is not necessarily theistic. Buddhists typically believe in reincarnation but don not have faith in any God. Faith can also be secular, try and think about all the different things we can be said to have faith in. Commitment to a concept can be an expression of faith, but needn’t be religious. People can be committed to an idea or a philosophy that guides their idea, they can be said to have faith in it. Contrasting what faith means to a religious group, for example Hindus, and to believers of a secular philosophy such as humanism can be really productive.

Faith is a way of understanding the world, underpinning the way we choose to interpret things. If you wanted to be really critical in your ToK work you should think about the complex relationships between the Ways of Knowing, like faith and reason. Some people might claim that faith and reason cannot be reconciled, that they are totally different ways of looking at the world, which often conflict. However, many religions see faith and reason as interdependent. Natural Theology teaches that God can only be known through reason, which He gave to human kind. Exploring these different perspectives to critically reflect on faith might be very effective in your ToK work.