The Ethics of Belief
Justice: knowing through one’s own knowledge
The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye. 1
O Son of Spirit!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes. 2
Clifford and the ethics of belief
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 1845 – 3 March 1879) was a British mathematician and philosopher. Of his philosophical works, perhaps the most famous and impactful is his essay “The Ethics of Belief”. 3 It is a three part essay, but only the first part is considered here. Wikipedia has an excellent summary:
In his 1877 essay, The Ethics of Belief, Clifford argues that it is immoral to believe things for which one lacks evidence. He describes a ship-owner who planned to send to sea an old and not well-built ship full of passengers. The ship-owner had doubts suggested to him that the ship might not be seaworthy: “These doubts preyed upon his mind, and made him unhappy.” He considered having the ship refitted even though it would be expensive. At last, “he succeeded in overcoming these melancholy reflections.” He watched the ship depart, “with a light heart…and he got his insurance money when she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales.” 4
In his essay, Clifford elaborates many important points: “He has acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts.” 5 “The question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of his belief, not the matter of it; not what it was, but how he got it; not whether it turned out to be true or false, but whether he had the right to believe on such evidence as was before him.” 6 “…the question is not whether their belief is true or false, but whether they entertained it on wrong grounds.” 7
Clifford points out that, now matter how trivial and unimportant it may seem, holding to a belief without warrant is corrosive to ourselves and to others. “No real belief, however trifling and fragmentary it may seem, is ever truly insignificant it prepares us to receive more of its like, confirms those which resembled it before, and weakens others; so gradually it lay a stealthy train in our inmost thought, which may someday explode into overt action, and leave its stamp on our character forever.” 8 He continued, “…it has been judged wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing doubt and avoiding investigation” 9 “No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station can escape the universal duty of questioning what we are to believe. It is true that this duty is a hard one, and the doubt which comes out of it is a very bitter thing.” 10
Concerning the effect on society, Clifford continues, “The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough, but that it should become credulous and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them, for then it must sink back into savagery.” 11
The essay concludes with Clifford saying, “To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything on insufficient evidence.” 12
Baha’u’llah’s teachings
One can see much similarity between Baha’u’llah’s teachings and Clifford’s insistence that belief has to be the result of investigation, that belief is a question of morality and justice. For example, Baha’u’llah said, “And all this thou didst commit without seeking to examine Our Cause or to discern its truth. For is it not thy clear duty to investigate this Cause, to inform thyself of the things that have befallen Us, to judge with equity, and to cleave unto justice?” 13
Again He wrote, “Thou didst ask for no explanation, nor didst thou attempt either to investigate or ascertain the matter, that the truth might be distinguished from falsehood in thy sight, and that thou mightest be clear in thy discernment. Find out for thyself the sort of man he was by asking those Ministers who were, at that time, in ‘Iráq, as well as the Governor of the City (Baghdád) and its high Counselor, that the truth may be revealed to thee, and that thou mayest be of the well-informed.” 14
And again He wrote, “It behoveth the benevolence of the Sovereign, however, to examine all matters with the eye of justice and mercy, and not to content himself with the baseless claims of certain individuals.” 15
Baha’u’llah clearly states that investigating matters oneself is a spiritual and moral obligation. It seems to me that so doing is not a guarantee the one will not make a mistake, but failing to investigate for oneself is a moral and ethical failure. In other words, our accountability for being sincerely and honestly mistaken in a belief is a lesser failure in Baha’u’llah’s eyes than believing without justification.
Summary
William Kingdon Clifford, philosopher, mathematician, and general polymath, argues in his essay “The Ethics of Belief” that it is a moral duty to base one’s beliefs on evidence and investigation. While having true beliefs is ideal, Clifford asserts that it is fundamentally necessary for a belief to be warranted—a principle that naturally makes it more likely to be true than false.
Bahá’u’lláh validates Clifford’s argument, emphasizing that we must examine all things with a searching eye. In His teachings, investigating truth for oneself—seeing with one’s own eyes and hearing with one’s own ears—is an ethical principle, a central requirement of justice. He sharply criticizes those who opposed and persecuted Him, noting that they acted without ever examining His cause or investigating the circumstances of His imprisonment and therefore had no justification for their evil deeds.
- Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, www.bahai.org/r/061871273 ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words, www.bahai.org/r/099947277 ↩︎
- https://users.manchester.edu/Facstaff/SSNaragon/Online/texts/201/-Essays/Clifford,%20EthicsBelief.pdf ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford ↩︎
- William Kingdom Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”, in “Philosophy of Religion – Selected Readings, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 66 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 66 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 67 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 68 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 68 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 69 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 70 ↩︎
- Ibid, p. 70 ↩︎
- (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts)
www.bahai.org/r/096769974 ↩︎ - (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh)
www.bahai.org/r/635730377 ↩︎ - (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts)
www.bahai.org/r/599332293 ↩︎