To a significant part of our society, the idea of blind faith is pejorative. Up to 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 identify as non-Christian, and 19 percent of Americans from ages 18 to 22 identify as atheist or agnostic, according to recent studies by the Barna Group. And although earlier generations fell back on nothing but pure faith that God would get them through wars, plagues, famines and depressions, many of today's new secularists consider such beliefs naive. While atheists and agnostics almost by definition have no unifying belief other than the impossibility of having a unified belief, it's probably correct to say that most secularists would contend that human destiny is controlled in large part by circumstance and random chance.
Which makes it all the more interesting that all of us - bright-eyed religious fundamentalists and cynical atheists alike - continue to keep plugging along and living our lives despite increasingly dire circumstances.
For example, the price of a barrel of crude oil hit $96 this week, up from roughly $60 a year ago. While this rise is likely due in large part to rampant speculation and a weakening U.S. dollar, the fact the economy's virtual lifeblood has become more than 50 percent more expensive in the course of a year is profoundly unsettling.
Of course, the flip side of more expensive gas is rising evidence in the form of global warming research that we shouldn't be using so much oil at all - a rare month is one that doesn't bring some new finding that the rate of carbon dioxide accumulation is rising faster than previously thought, or that the effects of global warming are more severe than previously believed.
Oh, and a potential writer's union strike means that soon there may not even be anything good to watch on television.
So while our inevitable doom isn't a sure thing, it's certainly not impossible that we'll find ourselves devoid of resources just as a changing environment starts to require more from us: more industrial cultivation, more emergency evacuation, even more air conditioning. While such a scenario might be merely inconvenient, there's a good chance that it could devolve into resource wars, starvation and massive misery and poverty.
But here's the thing: While the rational response to such a scenario might be to hunker down and build chaos-proof bunkers in a remote area, or to live like there's no tomorrow, that's not what people are doing, even supposedly super-rational secularists. For some, it's because they simply haven't paid attention to the news close enough to get an idea of what might be coming, but others most certainly are aware of the potential risks of a changing world.
Instead, people continue to live much as they always have: making plans, having kids, acting as if tomorrow will be much the same as today. I'd argue that's because we're all acting with blind faith about the future - faith not in God, but in society. Faith in our ability to adapt and overcome; faith that some new technology or new way of life will be introduced that overcomes any potential troubles.
It's not that there aren't rational reasons to believe global warming and a tightening global economy aren't the beginning of the end - just as previous dire predictions about overpopulation or nuclear war came to nothing, we can make the argument that this too shall pass. And it's not that there aren't potentially world-changing technologies on the horizon, from floating wind farms capable of harvesting the limitless solar energy of Hadley cells to hydrogen-producing algae farms capable of completely eliminating our dependence on foreign oil.
But these rational arguments aren't widely known to the general public, or even to many secularists, as many of today's college generation were never really aware of a world-ending nuclear threat, and the warning of Malthusian overpopulation is thought of as quaint pseudo-science, if even thought of at all. (And only the geekiest of geeks pay much attention to long-term energy development.)
What powers our decisions to keep on in the face of increasingly confusing and chaotic times is the same blind faith that made earlier generations believe they'd be all right, even during times such as the Black Death or chaotic war. We believe we'll make it through not because of any specific logical arguments, but because it's in our nature to blindly press on into the future, regardless of what religion, or lack thereof, we claim.
Just something to consider the next time you see an atheist or agnostic knocking blind faith. Jones is an electrical and computer engineering graduate student.
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