Compatibility or incompatibility of faith and reason is an old problem that crops up now and again. Is there any contradiction between the two? In our last post "Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ", we have seen the difference between 'belief' and 'knowledge' and how they differ. While 'belief' has its origin in the natural order of this world, 'faith' originates from an enlightenment of our mind from an order transcending this material world and is the result of graces received from God. Our capacity to 'believe', that is in the natural order like when we believe our teacher in the class, can serve as the foundation for 'faith' in God and His revelations to us. Belief in the resurrection of Jesus may lead to faith in him in the process of verification of facts about the resurrection. Here we have the instance of the declared faith of the Apostle Thomas in the process of verification of the facts about resurrection of Jesus directly from Jesus himself (See John, 20: 27-29).
Before we discuss the compatibility of faith and reason, let us start with the compatibility of belief and knowledge as these latter are but particular manifestations of the former. If we look at children and how they learn about the world around them and how they try to talk about what they understand, we see the importance of belief and the gradual blossoming of knowledge based on their belief. Children blindly believe what their parents and other mentors tell them and take them as absolutely true. Here the words 'blindly believe' are actually superfluous as there is no alternative for children. Thus we see that 'belief' is not something optional for any of us as we have built our life on it. Gradually, when we are in contact with the world in different ways and undergo new experiences, doubts arise in our minds as to the truth of certain beliefs held as true by us. It is not that our parents and others had deliberately deceived us when we were children, but at that age we were incapable to understand better or our parents and mentors were ignorant about certain facts themselves. By verification of facts at that stage, we proceed to gain knowledge that in no way should demean our beliefs as children. Besides, at the stage of acquiring knowledge our belief system is in no way demolished as only a few facts here and there were added to our beliefs that could not be known earlier. Our belief system always remains in force as the foundation of our knowledge even when we discuss highly complex scientific truths later on in life. Similar is the case with faith and reason.
'Faith' as distinguished from 'Belief'' refers to belief in truths transcending the material order of this world and refers to the supernatural order. Although both terms may be used to refer to both the orders of reality, in certain cases we may make the distinction in order not to confuse the issues involved. What is the relationship between 'Faith' and 'Reason'? Faith and belief always have their life and force when they refer to our trust and loyalty to a person who guides us in life, for which assenting to what she or he tells us is only a means. It is to be reflected in our personal life so that we tend to become like our guide. In this endeavor, our 'Reason' should serve us as the critical observer that prepares the way for faith or belief and as the judge that eliminates exaggerations likely to be indulged in under false pretenses. 'Reason' has its proper field of action in the line of knowledge seeking truth for which any kind of 'Faith' should not stand as a stumbling block. However, here 'Reason' has to remember that it should not be allowed to be arbitrarily restricted to the material conception of reality as the whole truth. This is especially true after the discovery of the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg and the latest developments in Quantum Physics. These developments have opened a window to the metaphysical from where 'Faith' takes its air to breathe. Of course, the metaphysical realm lies hidden like the river bed of a river, which may be compared to the physical.
As for the faith in the resurrection of Jesus, it has a historical as well as a trans-historical, i.e., transcendental dimension without which, just a coming back to life to die again, is powerless to save the whole universe. This dimension belonging to the other world cannot be verified by our Reason that is limited due to its confinement in our body and therefore knowledge gained through verification of the facts of the resurrection can only aid our faith. Faith and Reason need not contradict each other if they both realize their proper functions and fields of activity. Thus, faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not irrational and therefore can be reasonably adopted as our motif in life.
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