How does one reconcile contradictions between formal belief systems and personal beliefs based on experience? What if you’re personal beliefs contradict the beliefs of the larger order (moral or epistemological) to which you ascribe? Both cannot be right. One must concede to the other. But how do you know which one?

This dilemma can arise in all sorts of situations. I’ve struggled with it a lot in my graduate studies. Becoming a professional scientists requires that you scrutinize your understanding of knowledge and truth in the world…at least, I think it does. Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of scientists who go about their work without giving a moments thought to epistemology. But when you look at many of the constantly recurring arguments within the academy it is not difficult to see how many of them are rooted in unarticulated assumptions about how the world works and how we can know things about it. In hopes of avoiding this sort of problem in my own work, I spend a lot of time thinking about the basis on which I can build my knowledge of the world. How can I say that I know something about the world? Positivism? Naturalism? Postmodernism?

Recently I’ve found myself getting comfortable with phenomenolgy. As with many philosophical perspectives, phenomenology attempts to get down to the most basic truths of how we come to know things about the world. It starts from the premise that the only thing we have direct access to is our experience. Thus, our experience of the world should be central to how we evaluate the truth of any piece of knowledge. This is not simple relativism, though. It is not license for everyone to establish their own truth and morality. Phenomenolgy also assumes that there is a truth out there providing stimulus for every person who is experiencing it. So, discerning truth must be a fundamentally social endeavor. We must look for similarities in the experiences of others.

What does this have to do with doctrine, belief, and faith? Phenomenolgy calls for an inherently social religion, one based on community understanding.