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Do You Believe in God?

2011-06-23 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Philosophy & meaning · reflection essay

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

Replying to John's religion video, Hank argues that the words in 'do you believe in God?' are hard to define and that the question's motives are the problem: no one should take his answer as authority, and a one-word answer invites dangerous categorising of people.

What is said

00:00:00 — Thanks for John's Monday video: the unanswered question felt like a gap

  • ★ In the description Hank says humans are built to categorise: being exceptional pattern recognisers is one reason we are the dominant species on the planet. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank thanks John for his Monday video: Nerdfighteria had long asked the question, and leaving it unanswered felt wrong, like a gap in their body of work. — 00:00:01 · Nerdfighteria, John Green

00:00:16 — Questions about the question: defining 'God', 'belief' and knowledge (epistemology)

  • ★★★ Hank says asking questions about the questions we want to ask is often far more useful than answering the questions themselves. — 00:00:16
  • ★★ The phrase 'belief in God' has more hard-to-define words than easy ones: even people in the same church picture God differently, though it is very particular to each person. — 00:00:25
  • ★★ Hank explains that the difference between belief and knowledge is a whole branch of philosophy, epistemology, whose longest-running definition is that knowledge is belief that is true. — 00:00:49
  • ★★ Believing means accepting a chance of being wrong while having faith it's true; Hank knows his water won't poison him, but mere faith would make him unsure he'd drink it. — 00:01:14

00:01:31 — Why people ask: seeking authority or reassurance (reasons 1 and 1.5)

  • ★★★ What really bugs Hank about 'do you believe in God?' is the motivation for asking; he sees only two reasons to want the answer. — 00:01:31
  • ★★★ To those asking because they are unsure and see him as an authority, Hank says he is not one; it is a question each person must answer for themselves. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Reason 1.5, seeking reassurance that Hank believes the same, won't work either: you have to feel good about your beliefs for your own sake. — 00:02:11

00:02:32 — The second reason: categorising people by a one-word answer is dangerous

  • ★★★ The second reason is a shortcut to think you know a person from a very simple answer, which Hank calls dangerous: categorising is useful until you apply it to people. — 00:02:32
  • ★★ Hank says being asked whether he believes in God sometimes feels like a blind person asking whether he is black, so as to put him in the right category. — 00:02:54
  • ★★★ Hank calls it really dangerous that people hunt for markers ('gay people, Christians, atheists are all like this'); his biggest fear is being judged by a one-word answer. — 00:02:57

00:03:25 — When Hank would share his beliefs; the Satan-worshipper joke; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says he will be comfortable telling people about his beliefs and practices only after they have formed a strong opinion of who he is and how he lives. — 00:03:25

Threads in this video

Replies to

  • On Religion — «Thank you so much for your video on Monday.»

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