Fideism In Defense Of Christianity By Kierkegaard

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Recommended: Genesis 1:26-27

Fideism suggests that in the fight between faith and reason when searching for truth, faith prevails as a more effective means of arriving at certain peculiar truths. Fideism is the opinion that religious belief is contingent on faith or revelation, rather than reason, intellect or natural theology. In this vein, it is in direct contrast to the doctrine of Deism. More precisely it opposes evidentialism, the view that no belief should be entertained unless it is backed by evidence. As a result, it maintains that theology may include logical inconsistencies without apology. It may or may not also involve active criticism of the claims of reason (Geisler, 1976). Often when you encounter an atheist or an agnostic you may feel …show more content…

Ultimately, religion is a matter of the heart. Kierkegaard, for example, draws comparison between the person who speaks in “defense of Christianity” to a person who admits being a lover and offers “three reasons” for the greatness of his beloved. He mentions that there is an unholy inversion in the business of having to prove everything first. Kierkegaard wonders if it ever occurs to anyone in love to demonstrate the purity of love with three basic reasons. People no longer believe, and as such they try to help themselves with the manufactured legs of a little scientific scholarliness (Kierkegaard, …show more content…

God created humans in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) in contrast to animals, which act mainly on impulse, we mirror our Creator in our ability to display such qualities as love and justice. And in similarity to our Creator, we have free will and we can affect our future. The Bible admonishes us to “choose life by listening to his voice,” that is, by choosing to obey his commandments. In Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 the bible says “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them”. (Geisler, 2013)

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