fideism & religion

St. Paul (philosopher, polyglot, founder of Christianity) makes a startling definition in his letter to Hebrews 11:1:

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

FAITH cannot be epistemic, and yet, it has a place. philosophy defines epistemology as the study of knowledge and belief is central to it.

Is FAITH plain belief? no. 

FAITH IS MUCH MORE: SOMETHING WHICH MOVES ONE TOWARDS THE FUTURE, i. e., PROVIDING PURPOSE IN LIFE .

the future, by definition is NOT YET, but almost there in one important aspect. BECOMING (DEVENIR).

you're NOT in the NOW cause the now is a flicker between the past and the next. 

what you really are is be-coming. 

faith deals with the bceoming the NOT SEEN YET

the anthropological question is why do we need faith? 

let's bring a few scholars to this discussion.

here's Fideism as discussed by four important philosophers:

Blaise Pascal,
Søren Kierkegaard,
William James,
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 

1. Pascal: For Pascal faith and reason are incommensurable. Here a couple of quotes:

deux excès: exclure la raison, n'admettre que la raison, (neither exclude reason nor solely admit reason)

la foi et la raison ne peuvent pas suivre le même chemin, (faith and reason don't mix)

2. Kierkegaard: 

1. truth lies in the search for an object, not in the object sought. "If God held truth in one hand and the eternal pursuit of it in the other, I choose the second hand." 

2. faith is subjective,  meaning IT IS FOR THE SUBJCT. the subject defines it.

3. William James: James is the founder of Pragmatism, the only American school of philosophy. 

In Will to Believe, James defends what he calls a genuine option, which is a choice between two hypotheses, which the believer regards as "living" (meaningful), "forced" (mutually exclusive), and "momentous" (having important consequences). 

A genuine option is always relative to the perspective of the believer.

see how James and Kierkegaard agree?

4. Wittgenstein's fideism: groups of people use different sprachspiel or "language games". 
Religion is a language game.  

People who talk this language MEAN AND PLAY THE GAME in the language. So, when the skeptic or the atheist press the issue of proof or justification to the theist, they are asking really a question not about reality but about PLAYING THE GAME.