The view that without evidence faith is worthless can be traced back to the rationalist philosophers. They believed that it was unreasonable to be religious if you cannot prove it. Rationalism is the practise of treating reason as the ultimate authority in religion. A big branch, and the main believers of strong rationalism are the positivists. They believed in logical positivism, a philosophical movement that originated in the 1920s with the Vienna Circle that preached that every rationally justifiable assertion is capable of logical or mathematical proof. They therefore reject all metaphysics and theism. Positivists accused many philosophers and theologians of speaking nonsense and sought to apply some of the theories of science to language. As positivism grew more and more, three different branches came into being: verificationalism; falsificationism and evidentialism. There are however theories such as critical rationalism and fideism which disagree with strong rationalism.
Verificationalists believe that we know the meaning of a statement if we know the conditions under which the statement is known to be true. If one cannot do this, the statement is meaningless. Verificationalists have specific requirements in order for a statement to be ‘meaningful’. These are that the statement has to be analytic and synthetic. Analytic means that it must be true by virtue of the meaning of the words or concepts used to express it, so that’s its denial would be self-contradiction. The synthetic part means that the statement has to have either truth or falsity that can be determined by recourse to experience. A.J.Ayer, a British philosopher who famously said “‘God’ is a metaphysical term”, argued that all religious language was meaningless...
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...the stranger is God, we trust him even though sometimes it seems like he is not helping. This is known as the problem of evil. The moral is that evidence can be found which counts for or against such beliefs, but once a commitment to believe has been made, neither partisan nor the religious believer will allow anything to count decisively against their beliefs. The only problem critics have is that God shouldn’t have to be seen to act against us like the stranger.
In conclusion critical rationalism has the best of both worlds but as a Christian, I believe that fideism is the test that God has given us as the one requirement to gain his trust and ultimately the key to unlock the Kingdom of God. And if people still don’t have faith, Pascal’s wager proves that mathematically, it is better to believe in the Christian God than it is not to believe in the Christian God.
The other answer to the question is that faith is doubt. This basis relies on the fact that since there is so little proof, one must doubt therefore one must have faith.
In Paul Tillich’s 1957 work Dynamics of Faith, he mentions that there are six major components of faith. These six components of faith describe the Franciscan perspective of “faith”. According to Tillich, the first component of faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned”. The second component of faith is that it is supposed to be at the center of all of our personal lives and everything that we do throughout our own individual lives. The third component of faith is that we should have an awareness for “infinite” things such as God himself. The fourth component of faith is that we need to understand that faith can act as fear, fascination, or both of these qualities at the same time. The fifth component of faith is that doubt is a major product that will always exist with faith. The last component of faith is that we need a community in order to have a “language of faith”.
Faith is in the heart and as has been said, the heart has reason which reason cannot understand. So if it were a fight over finding rationality, it would not be fully supported because finding the complete and total reason for faith will never be found.
What a fascinating adjustment in perspectives, motive, and determination from the once deeply connected to God the unprofessed theologian. The man who we admired for his crafty dexterity to be a Christian Apologetic emerges to be torn from the foundations of his faith and experiences of how to respond to the unspecified. This book is openly troubling for the believer because all too often we know that this is a very real situation that our author is experiencing. However, while it may appear that a staunch believer has lost his way were hastily reminded that this not the case at all. In the book "A Grief Observed" by C. S. Lewis we see, what I call, a defining mature Christian transition, disruption to the norm, or bump in the road all Christians
A time comes in everybody's life where they need to be "saved." When this happens a spiritual bond is formed with in that individual. In Langston Hughes' essay, "Salvation," that bond is broken because Langston wasn't saved. It is because Langston turned to Jesus, and in his eyes Jesus wasn't there. This creating a conflict within himself and the members of the church, with the end result being Langston's faith being destroyed.
Non-religious people would say that believing in God and higher authority is irrational and mainly because of the two reasons. One of them is lack of evidence and other one is evidence to the contrary. In other words, the belief in God is rational only when there is a sufficient evidence for the existance of God (Clark, n.d.). God’s existance is a certain type of claim and it requires approporiate evidence in order to support it (Corbett, 2012). Let’s say for instance, that someone wants to validate geographical claims. It would be very easy to validate them through using maps or small size globe. Or for example, validation of distance can be done by using different kinds of measurements. But how do you validate God’s existance? You cannot measure it, or use maps in this case. Does the Bible trully claims the exsistance of God? One of the epistemologic objections would be the question about all the evil in the world (Corbett, 2012). If the God exists, how come there is so much pain, struggle and suffering in the world? Why did some little baby, or any human in general deserve do die or suffer from illness? These are some of the stronges epistemologic objections that conflict with my view about religion and Christianity in
...that makes them believe beyond all doubt that God does exist. Others may say that the evidence of God’s existence is all around us everywhere, space, life, the Earth.
basis for belief in a deity were merely negations of, or tried to deny, the
The role of faith has been debated among many theologians, scientists, and philosophers. It has been greatly discussed and depicted throughout history as whether faith is logical when it comes to religion or whether faith is completely absurd. In this essay, I will focus on the role of faith through the lenses of Christian philosophers Sorean Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Faith plays an important role in Kierkegaard and Tillich theology; I will critically examine their depiction of faith and compare and contrast their passages. Kiergarrd view of faith is that it is completely absurd where as Ti
Pope John Paul II once said, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Fallible Blogma) Based on this significant and powerful quote, one can infer that faith and reason are directly associated and related. It can also be implied that the combination of faith and reason allows one to seek information and knowledge about truth and God; based on various class discussions and past academic teachings, it is understood that both faith and reason are the instruments that diverse parties are supposed to use on this search for truth and God. There are many stances and viewpoints on the issues of faith and reason. Some believe that both of these ideas cannot and should not be combined; these parties deem that faith and reason must be taken as merely separate entities. However, this writer does not understand why both entities cannot be combined; both terms are so closely compatible that it would make sense to combine the two for a common task. Based on various class discussions and readings, there are many philosophers and theologians who have certain opinions regarding faith, reason and their compatibility; these philosophers include Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The following essay will examine each of the previously stated philosopher’s viewpoints on faith and reason, and will essentially try to determine whether or not faith and reason are ultimately one in the same.
Upon reading Will to Believe, there is no doubt we will all begin to question how we’ve gotten to our beliefs and why we believe what we do. William James argues against forced beliefs and expresses the importance of choice. The idea of choice is one I strongly agree with. Although we are easily influenced by others, when it comes to beliefs free will must come into play. As far as the science method, which I have discussed, a belief is just as valid whether there is evidence or not because most scientific methods will never be one hundred percent proven and they will change over
‘The Stranger’ is a philosophical concept introduced by Simmel. The term can be applied to everyone because he believes that anyone can become ‘the stranger.’ ‘The stranger’ is an “element” of the group and we need it to help define ourselves, because constantly we try to distinguish ourselves from others. Coming from a Jewish background, Simmel surely would understand what it means to be a stranger. “A trace of strangeness…easily enters even the most intimate relationships” (Simmel, 1908, p.147). Simmel argues that this “strangeness” exists in all relationships even among closest friends and families. It also exists within our own identity because he believed that it is necessary to be different from the group. The qualities of being near and far demonstrated by ‘the stranger’ mean that he is not strongly part of the social group allowing him to look at things objectively without being bias. “Objectivity can also be defined as freedom,” (Simmel, 1908, p.146) in the case of ‘the stranger,’ means that he is outside the limits of social constraints and is not defined by the society. By being “the freer man” this allows the individual to become ‘the
There have been many Catholic thinkers who have addressed this topic, most notably John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, or Faith and Reason in English. In it, he attempted to point out that faith and reason are not opposed to each other and that faith does not contradict reason. Rather, they actually complement each other. This is clear from the very beginning of the encyclical, which states: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves. (FR 1).” Truth is discovered through the interacti...
As human beings, we have to be able to reflect on our lives and recognize things we have learned and events we have gone through. Particularly as social workers you really have to know yourself and understand your experiences may not be the same of others and have to be open to others stories. But nevertheless I will be focusing and reflecting on my life, events from my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Exploring stages of life that I have confronted for example attachment theory, initiative versus guilt, and Individual-Reflective Faith.
Growing up I was raised in a religious household, so, of course, I’m a big believer in God and my faith. To me, God is the creator of all and I believe Judgment Day is going to come very soon.The definition of faith is the belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion. My faith and the reason for my faith goes hand in hand because it makes me know the truth and opens my eyes to this world. Also, I get clarity of why I’m in this world which is to make it a better place. But seeing the world as faith with reason or reason with faith has a few challenges and can make things a little bit difficult. Same goes for science and religion which butt heads a lot. Some may feel that the Big Bang Theory created