Abstract
While there may be conflict between the concepts of Faith and Reason, Faith and Reason go hand in hand because without reason, faith wouldn’t even be plausible.
Faith and Reason: A Contested Vision
Throughout history, a big problem faced by the world is whether there is a conflict between having faith and having reason. Although there are many occurrences in the bible that don’t have much reason, it is believed that there must be some reason in order to have faith.
According to Merriam Webster, the definition of reason is “a sufficient ground of explanation or of logical defense”. Going off of this definition it may be extremely difficult to have reason, but also be devoted to your faith. Many may contemplate the incoherencies of being a religious person and the idea of faith and compare that to science which provides us with cold hard evidence. For example, as a catholic, I grew up being taught that God created the world in 6 days. Over the course of these 6 days, God manages to create night and day, differentiate between land and water, create the sun, moon and the stars, and create life which includes man. On the other hand, with the evolution of science and its immense research, it is said that the world began with the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is a scientific explanation of the start of not only the world, but the entire universe. Given these two very opposite explanations of how the earth began, it’s difficult to stay devoted to your faith, but also give in to logical reason. (something about biblical reason that proves it overcomes)
Another story from the bible that is extremely implausible is the story of Noah’s Ark. The Story of Noah’s Ark is about God saving all the animals in the world with the help of a man named Noah. In the story, God believes that the world is full of wicked people with the exception of Noah. God then orders Noah to build an ark for his family and all the animals of the world. God only gave Noah 7 days to build the ark and get everything ready before he sent 40 days and 40 nights of rain which results in a disastrous flood. Unfortunately, I disagree with the story completely although this is a very well-known story from the Bible. I believe that this story ties into faith and reason because in order to believe the story you have to have complete faith. If you tie in biblical reasoning, there is absolutely a way that one man was able to gather up every single animal in the world and to be able to have them in one single ark which he managed to build on his own in 7 days. God is known to be an all-knowing, all- powerful being and there is no doubt in my mind that an all-powerful being is able to give a man the power to build an Ark. In the mind of a religious person, God is beyond time and beyond our doubt.
There are many happenings about applying logical reason to your faith in the bible. In the book of Colossians, it is pointed out that God is a mystery, but hidden in that mystery is wisdom and knowledge. That being said, this is another point that substantiates faith and reason are able to go hand in hand. God has the knowledge and even though he’s a mystery to most, we must have faith in order to understand the immense knowledge he has and provides. Another verse from the bible that gives us some insight on God’s reason comes from the book of Acts. The verse states “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.” From my understanding, this verse explains how faith and reason are cohesive subjects.
Growing up in a Catholic family, and attending church regularly, I was always taught not to question God and to just have faith in his existence and power. As I got older, of course the questioning began. Questioning God and being able to have reason for your faith is an entirely sound occurrence which probably happens to every faithful person. I believe that there is not a conflict between faith and reason due to the fact that in order to have faith, there must be some reason to that belief. Throughout my entire life, putting faith and reason together never occurred to me and now after thinking about the correlation between the two, I’m very certain that there is no conflict between the two. Having strong faith most definitely comes from somewhere, and that somewhere is reason. Whether you practice Catholicism, like I do or another religion, that faith came from somewhere for example the bible. I believe that faith and reason doesn’t even have to be tied into religion, but in everyday life. For example, if you have faith that the cowboys will do good next season, there must be at least a little reason for that. Faith and reason is definitely part of your everyday life if you really think about it. In Proverbs 4:5 it is even mentioned that you should “Get wisdom! Get understanding!” I believe having faith means there has to be at least a little bit of reason.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the question of whether there is a conflict between faith and reason may be interpreted in many different ways depending on ones beliefs, but from my point of view there is definitely no conflict. Having reason is a necessary component to have faith and having faith is a necessary component to have reason.