Do You Believe in God?
2011-06-23 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:48 · watch on YouTube
Topic: Philosophy & meaning · mode: Personal essay
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
The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).
00:00:00 — Thanks for John's Monday video: the unanswered question felt like a gap
- ★★ 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
In the description and comments
- ★ 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. — video description
- ★★★ Hank says our pattern-seeking is something to work against: going out of our way to gather data points to shove people into little boxes is worse than ordinary prejudice. — video description
- ★★★ On meeting someone Hank would rather not know their politics, religion or upbringing: first impressions drawn from pattern bias, prejudice and in-group bias do us and them a disservice. — video description
Threads in this video
- restate · Does God exist, and is religious faith worth having? — Hank declines to give his own answer: he is no authority, each person must answer the question for themselves, and he will share his beliefs only once people know how he lives. (00:01:51) → refers to On Religion
- restate · Can we imagine other people complexly, and what stops us? — Hank says using one-word labels as markers to categorise people ('gay people/Christians/atheists are all like this') is really dangerous. (00:02:32)
Mentioned
Central: existence of God · stereotype
Also: atheism · Christianity · epistemology · pattern recognition (psychology) · Satan · sexual orientation · unicorn
Only in the description or credits: in-group favoritism · thin-slicing
Also centred on existence of God: On Religion · My Religion
Also centred on stereotype: Going to College (in Ethiopia)
Replies to
- continues · On Religion — “Thank you so much for your video on Monday.”
Later videos replying to this one
- 2011-06-24 · On Religion (Redux) (John) — continues — “in your video on Wednesday, you pointed out how difficult it can be to” (00:00:19)