Jan
06
2010
Faith is forced consent
“Faith is forced consent. . . . In common parlance we say a man commands confidence. We do not trust a man simply because we have willed to, or even because we desire to. And we cannot distrust a man simply because we wish or will to do so. We trust a man because we have evidence that to us appears sufficient, evidence of trustworthiness. When to our apprehension a man presents evidence of trustworthiness we cannot but trust him, even though we hate his trustworthiness and would wish the opposite to be the case. His trustworthiness may be the ruin of what we think to be our interests, but we cannot but trust him (e.g. the criminal who wants to evade justice, arraigned before a judge whom he believes to be just and fair, may do everything in his power to do away with the judge. But why? Because he trusts him.) We cannot but believe in his reliability and truthfulness.”
John Murray, “Faith,” in Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh, 1977), II:237, italics his.