William K. Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief”

The example that Clifford uses with the shipowner and the shipwreck taught me the fact that our everyday beliefs shape our everyday actions. Since the shipowner’s rock solid belief that the ship was not going to wreck, his belief led him to take action of sending out the ship. The most interesting thing is when the wreck does happen and the shipowner’s reaction is hilarious, for he is shocked and quiet. As Clifford stated, ” he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him” (1.2). The statement is quite true, I believe the shipowner was reckless in not making sure that the ship was in top condition to travel out to sea. Karma decided to take control and by teaching him a lesson, he had the death of the families on his shoulders now.

Therefore, as I read on, I also got another message from Clifford. If our beliefs are firm and if  we do not react on them with illogical acts, they serve to us as a sort of guide or path for the future ahead of us. This leads to another point that Clifford made. He pointed out that there really is not such a thing as “no real belief” because any type of idea can grow to invade our minds and become a very rooted and strong belief. Thus, if we do not choose to acknowledge the fact that our own belief is real, it can lead us to react without really thinking. By doing this, Clifford explains that we could have our character scared and changed forever. I completely agree with him. It’s kind of like the expression “do not have regrets because they make you who you are”. I find that this expression speaks to our character; and like the shipowner, I’m sure his biggest regret was when he had so much faith in the ship, that he let it sail and kill those on board. This regret of his changed his character and yet it held firmly to the fact that what he did was indeed wrong.

To add on to this post, after the discussion in class about this reading, my outlook on this article did change. Knowing now that Clifford’s message was mostly pointing to religion, the article seems different to me. The thing that impacted me most was the concept of luck. In this case, the Morality of Luck. After hearing everyone’s stories about something unfair that happened to them, I just thought how true it is that luck is always controversial. My main concern though is, if luck knocks us down more than once, is it for a greater and better purpose for our future?

Also, after re-reading the text, I have feel like Clifford is an absolutist. I came to that conclusion because of what he says on the second page. Clifford states: ” When an action is once done, it is right or wrong forever; no accidental failure of its good or evil fruits can possibly alter that” (2.1). After reading that sentence, I was just like “whoa”! He’s pretty hardcore. I like that about Clifford because it shows how strongly he stands behind his belief that once an something is done, it is done and it is either right or wrong. What i do not like about that is that I feel like he can be a bit narrow minded because many situations can be complex.