Faith and Reason is our topic. This portion of the book refers to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and how they interpret their holy books. Some groups think that one should not use reason, but go by the literal word. Other groups believe reason is necessary; it is a gift from God to help everyone understand who He is. Factual question: What philosopher said that science and reasoning should not lead to the abandonment of religion? Answer: Maimonides
Discussion question: Do you believe faith and reasoning work well together, or should one pick between the two?
I feel that faith and reason go hand and hand. By using reason, you can strengthen your faith. I can see how some would reject reasoning within faith, because it could lessen the strength of one's faith by seeing that there is a lack of true reason in their faith.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I would like to apologize for not being in class today, but I will be returning Tuesday. Now regarding the discussion question, do I believe faith and reason work well together? my answer is..... Sometimes. For me, I have a system of I consider to be very reasonable beliefs about my faith. I have faith in God, faith in my salvation through Christ, and faith in the Spirit. I would also consider myself a person of Enlightenment. You see, the more I come to understand the world through science, the more my faith is assured. Everything has a purpose and a plan: a divine blueprint that is too complex for us to cognize. Now would this mean that my faith is caused by a lack of understanding? Goodness no! My faith is contributed to my reasoning: if we as a human race have been on the planet between 100,000 to 45,000 years(debate is out on the accuracy of carbon dating of ancient fossils) and we have still not discovered the ultimate truth of our creation and our physiological make-up, or even how to unlock certain portions of our own brain, something very divine must have been behind all this! I believe that must be God. (I have more argument to His existence but that would be wayyy too long winded for this blog.) So by reasonable means, I affirmed my faith in the Lord.
ReplyDeleteThis way of thinking is not for everyone and I know that some believers think that reason has no place in the world of faith, and that some non-believers think that faith has no place with reason; that is why I previously answered sometimes. For me, however, I think it is perfectly reasonable to combine the two!
Faith and reasoning cannot be separated, in my mind. Like Jon said, reasoning can strengthen faith and even bring you to faith. Faith without some sort of insight or reasoning seems to be a sort of blind faith to hold. Possibly, it could lessen your faith in something and controversially bring you into another faith. And, ultimately, I don't think living a life within the wrong faith is a way to live. Especially if you are simply in that faith because you are purposefully straying away from reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI believe it depends on the environment one grows up in, how one's reasoning and faith have been formed throughout the years. Some people use reason to denounce faith because there are so many factors about religions that seem unrealistic in terms of reason. Others use faith to denounce reasoning because everything is so complex that it is difficult to believe we can find answers through reasoning. I believe these people are the extremists, however. It seems as if most people stay about in the middle, like you all have said in your posts, using faith and reasoning hand in hand to define life.
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