Even among the non-religious, deep religious faith is often portrayed as a strength and a source of comfort. But theres at least one atheist who had a diametrically opposite view of the value of religious faith. Ayn Rand was a staunch advocate of reason and an opponent of faith. Consider this passage of hers from the climactic speech near the end of Atlas Shrugged:

To make sense of why Rand would have been so uncompromising in her opposition to faith, it is helpful to explore her distinctive view of what faith demands.

As I discussed in a recent webinar, Should I Go by Reason or by Faith?, theres much confusion about what faith actually means. For instance, I argue that faith is not the same thing as trusting other people: we can sometimes have good reason to trust other people. At minimum, faith means accepting something as true without reason or evidence.

One believes on faith not out of some positive internal joy, but out of fear of a negative.

Somewhere in the distant reaches of his childhood, when his own understanding of reality clashed with the assertions of others, with their arbitrary orders and contradictory demands, [a mystic is a man who] . . . gave in to so craven a fear of independence that he renounced his rational faculty. At the crossroads of the choice between I know and They say, he chose the authority of others, he chose to submit rather than to understand, to believe rather than to think. Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others.1

One thing that I think makes this view of faith plausible is that it helps to explain why many people have the religious beliefs they do. Why, for instance, are there so many Muslims in the Middle East? Have all or even most of them carefully compared different religious texts and faith traditions and coincidentally decided that the Koran is the most reliable? Or did they simply uncritically accept what they were raised to believe? The latter is far more likely. Obviously the same explanation applies to Hindus in India, Jews in Israel, and Christians in contemporary America.

READ ALSO: Ben Bayer on Arbitrary Speculation and Religious Faith

All of this should help clarify why faith cannot be a source of strength or comfort in Rands view. There is nothing empowering or comforting about living a life shackled to ones tribe, a life of surrendering the I know to the they say. Neither is deceiving oneself into thinking one is actually peering at eternal truths with the help of an inner light. This is why Rand thought it was crucial that we go by reason all the time and never by faith.

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Footnotes

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Understanding Ayn Rand's Rejection of Faith