Basil Mitchell's Parable of the Partisan

• During WW2, when the Resistance was created in occupied countries like France or Holland, secrecy was essential
• The Gestapo would use torture to gain information, in order to round other members of the Resistance
• To minimise the chance of this happening, the Resistance organised themselves into small cells - only one member would know the identity of another member in the next cell
• A resistance fighter meets a stranger who claims to be the head of the entire Resistance and the fighter believes him
• He maintains this belief even when he sees the stranger in the uniform of the other side

• The partisan does not deny that there is strong evidence against his belief that the stranger is who he claims to be
• To remain sane, the partisan must accept the reality of the evidence against his belief - if he does not he is guilty of a failure of faith and logic
• This is similar to someone believing in God - if a believer does not accept their strong evidence against their belief then they are guilty of delusion
• The partisan and the believer do not have blind faith - they have reasons for their faith

For Mitchell, a mature belief is not blind faith