W. K. Clifford The Ethics Of Belief Analysis

Does Clifford present a persuasive viewpoint of religious faith? In his article “The Ethics of Belief (Clifford, 1877) W.K. Clifford sought to claim that it is inappropriate always, in all places, and for anyone, to believe anything upon unsatisfactory evidence. The goal of this paper is to determine whether indeed this opinion offered by Clifford, when considering religious faith, is persuasive. To successfully do this, I will weigh up the arguments that Clifford put forward, including that of disbelieving anything based upon scarce evidence, it always does damage and therefore is wrong. Such an assertion is in direct conflict to those pious believers who consider their blind faith as a goodness and for whom proof is something that is needless
Clifford assumed that even if no damage had come to the ship and travelers the owner would still have been ethically wrong as it is not the following action grounded on a faith that is incorrect but the holding of the faith in the first place. The belief was being kept even though the proof before him was not enough to keep that belief, instead he simply found the way to stifle his uncertainty. In this example Clifford’s opinion is, his choice not to completely examine and validate his belief by obtaining real evidence had the outcome of affecting the lives of several other people and families and at this point there can be no claim that the ship owner was ethically incorrect. Yet, Clifford maintains the view that there is no faith held, nevertheless trivial, that does not have an impact on the fate of manhood and that is why, the desire of success and subsistence of community, that his opinions are based. Clifford claims that what harms society is by manhood being naive and that the principal danger to society is that man’s naivety should lead him to stop analyzing and searching into things for to believe without proof would bring our society back into
I agree fully with Clifford when discussing beliefs that will have an obvious impact on the fate of others, then of course in such cases evidence is paramount but I would disagree with Clifford over the fate of mankind over every held belief, and would suggest that some effects are so subtle as to not warrant such a view, whether I believe that the taxi driver who I used once likes me is of no significance to the fate of mankind. I formed this belief because he smiled at me, that may be considered insufficient evidence, however as a human being with instinct and emotions it makes me feel better to hold this belief, therefore I do. If we consider perhaps the many people who may have suffered misfortune in life and who take the opportunity of the turn of the New Year to state their belief that this year will be different, good things are to come their way and fortunes will change. I don’t agree that these individuals can be labeled immoral in holding these