Reasoning and Rational Decision Making

As part of an assignment for this philosophy class, we were to describe an irrational belief that is widespread in society. After we completed our assignment, we were to respond to another student's idea. Here is what another student wrote:

"One largely widespread belief in our culture that, looking from a logical point of view, is irrational is belief in God. Believing in an almighty power or deity does not fit the framework of rationality since it lacks solid evidence on which to base it. Never the less, billions of people choose to believe in a god of sorts, making a leap of faith rather than a rational decision. There is not a person today who knows what happens after we pass away, since no one has died and lived to tell about it. If everyone who believed in God required solid, rational evidence of his/hers/its existence, then no one would believe since there really is none."

Here is how I decided to respond:

"Here is where we can debate on what is truly rational. Let's use an example of something that is not completely concrete, yet we know as human beings to be true. The emotion that we as humans deem "love." Is it true that we cannot see, touch, or smell love? We see the fruits thereof, actions that humans perform that we call love. If we consider love in the broadest sense, it is something real and concrete that all humans, and has been shown through studies that other creatures experience. If someone were to describe to you their feelings of love, they would provide you with a series of statements beginning with "It feels like..." or "I feel..." Since there is no concrete evidence to the existence of love, does that mean it is irrational to act on feelings of love? If love is something felt on a personal basis, does it become false?

The concept of faith is within the same category. Faith is an action in response to feeling. It is something that can be described, and acted upon, yet is felt on a personal basis. Just as you cannot force another to feel love, you cannot force the feeling of faith.

Just as any other rational or irrational belief, you must take into account a broad range of knowledge. Referring to examples from the assignment, someone who smokes cigarettes could tell you that smoking is a healthy and pleasant activity, but if their knowledge were expanded they would come to understand that smoking truly has ill effects on one's physical health. Their irrational decision is based either on ignorance or a choice to ignore truth. Truth is the way things are, whether each individual is aware or not.

A belief in God should not be counted as strictly irrational because those who do believe in such a Deity would describe to you plenty of evidence if you asked for it. In attempt to be brief, refer back to faith as personal, therefor not irrational as they count more than they can see, taste and hear to encompass their realm of knowledge and action."