Belief as Emotional Commitment. Unamuno, Life 9.8
~
Unamuno construes belief or faith as an emotional commitment. If we
are drawn strongly to deny or affirm a thing, then it is bound
powerfully to us, and we to it. In this way, many who deny God's
existence passionately end up affirming with action (and feeling)
what their words deny. ~
Los
que dicen creer en Dios, y ni le aman ni le temen, no creen en Él,
sino en aquellos que les han enseñado que Dios existe, los cuales, a
su vez con harta frecuencia, tampoco creen en Él. Los que sin pasión
de ánimo, sin congoja, sin incertidumbre, sin duda, sin la
desesperación en el consuelo, creen creer en Dios, no creen sino en
la idea Dios, mas no en Dios mismo. Y así como se cree en Él por
amor, puede también creerse por temor, y hasta por odio, como creía
en Él aquel ladrón Vanni Fucci, a quien el Dante hace insultarle
con torpes gestos desde el Infierno. (Inf. XXV, 1, 3). Que
también los demonios creen en Dios, y muchos ateos.
¿No
es, acaso, una manera de creer en Él esa furia con que le niegan y
hasta le insultan los que no quieren que le haya, ya que no logran
creer en Él? Quieren que exista como lo quieren los creyentes; pero
siendo hombres débiles y pasivos o malvados, en quienes la razón
puede más que la voluntad, se sienten arrastrados por aquélla, bien
a su íntimo pesar, y se desesperan y niegan por desesperación, y al
negar, afirman y crean lo que niegan, y Dios se revela en ellos,
afirmándose por la negación de sí mismo.
Mas
a todo esto se me dirá que enseñar que la fe crea su objeto es
enseñar que el tal objeto no lo es sino para la fe, que carece de
realidad objetiva fuera de la fe misma; como por otra parte, sostener
que hace falta la fe para contener o para consolar al pueblo, es
declarar ilusorio el objeto de la fe. Y lo cierto es que creer en
Dios es hoy, ante todo y sobre todo, para los creyentes intelectuales
querer que Dios exista.
Those
who believe in God without loving or fearing him do not really
believe in him, but in the
people who have taught them that God exists, teachers who themselves
very often fail to believe in him. These people believe without
spiritual passion, without anguish, without doubt, with no
hesitation, no despair to temper their comfort. Believing merely in the belief of God, they can only attain the idea
of him, never reaching the divine reality. Just as we can reach God
by love, so we can learn to believe in
him by fear, and even by
hatred, in the manner of the thief Vanni Fucci, whom
Dante causes to hurl insults & futile gestures at the Lord from
the depths of hell (†).
Thus we see that the demons believe in God, as do many atheists.
For
isn't the fury with which some atheists deny God's existence a form
of belief? What drives them to insult him, when they cannot longer
believe? Like the believers, they want him. But being weak,
passive, or cursed men, in whom reason rules more than will, they
feel themselves bound to deny, though this cause them great pain in
their hearts. So they despair and deny, and in so doing they affirm &
create what they are denying. Hence God is revealed in them,
affirming himself in the denial of him that they utter.
In
response to all of this, I will be told that making faith create its
own object means teaching that this object only exists by faith, that
it lacks objective reality outside of faith. In similar wise,
maintaining that faith is needed to hold people together or console
them means admitting that faith's object is illusory. It is true that
for intellectuals, believing in God today, above and before all else,
means wanting God to exist.
---
(†)
Vanni Fucci was a brigand
from Pistoia in Dante's time. In the Divine Comedy, the
poet discovers him being eternally snakebitten & burned to
ash in the eighth circle of
hell, where he recounts his infamous theft from
the sacristy of St. James in Pistoia,
& prophesies the defeat of the Whites in Florence (Inferno
24.97-151).
Unamuno cites
the end of his speech.
Al
fine de le sue parole il ladro
le
mani alzò con amendue le fiche,
gridando:
"Togli, Dio, ch'a te le squadro!"
When
the thief with words was through
He
raised his hands & signals drew
Screaming,
“God! These figs for you!”
Inferno 25.1-3