Faith and Reason

On one interpretation faith and reason are opposed since faith involves believing something without reason, while reason rejects belief that does not have evidence or other direct rational support. This, however, is a caricature of what are in fact complex and interconnected notions. On the one hand it is important to distinguish between a) believing something in the face of evidence and reasoning to the contrary, and b) believing it though evidence and reasoning are insufficient of themselves to determine its truth. On the other hand, reasoning does not operate in a mental vacuum. It has a context which involves assuming things for which one does not oneself have evidence or rational proof. Believing that there is a material world, that is has existed for a vast period of time, that one was born, that there are other people, that there are chemical elements, that 2+2=4, the English word ‘man’ means man, and so on are taken to be rational but they are all generally assumed rather than personally established by reason or empirical evidence. Indeed, in some cases it is hard to see how they could be established. So, believing without evidence or reason is a widespread phenomenon. Similarly, faith does not operate in isolation from empirical evidence and reasoning. Here it is also important to distinguish between faith-in, and faith-that. Mutually trusting partners have faith-in one another, subscribers to a set of beliefs (religious or otherwise) believe-that such and such is the case. As with faith and reason, these two phenomena are intertwined. If you have faith in someone then you have reason to believe that what they say on certain matters is true. Likewise, if you believe that someone is trustworthy then you have reason to have faith in them. Christians believe a number of things most centrally articles of faith as expressed in Creeds, but the opening words “I believe in God …’ in their original use, derived from Hebrew beliefs in the Abrahamic covenant, express both belief that there is one and only one God and trust in God. Natural theology refers to that field of thought which seeks to establish truths about God on the basis only of natural evidence and reason, i.e. without appeal to revelation. Its central preoccupation has been devising and assessing arguments for the existence of God such as from the existence and nature of the world.