Recently I was faced with a serious health problem, which made me reexamine the fragility of my own mortality, my religious beliefs, and, particularly, my belief in God.

There are cycles in which bashing religion and attacking a belief in God as delusional is a popular pastime.  It appears that currently we are in one of these cycles.  The arguments against religion and a belief in God, include: (1) God is simply a projection of our insecurities, (2) Some of the worst crimes and injustices against humanity were committed in the name of religion, (3) Religion is an opiate of the masses, needed to maintain conformity and societal stability, (4) God and religion can be explained by the principles of evolutionary biology, that is, groups of people who practiced religion and had a strong God belief had an evolutionary advantage in survival—and we are the end product of this evolutionary process, and (5)  There is so much evil in the world that I cannot believe in God.  These arguments are rational, but are they decisive in determining one’s belief in God?

Sages and philosophers have debated and contemplated the existence of God throughout the ages. Although people keep trying, it is generally accepted among philosophers that you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God—the so-called “Scottish verdict.”  Because God is transcendent, God must necessarily lie outside our understanding and rationality. If we could rationalize and fully understand God, then we would be on the same level as God.   The “created” would then become like the “creator.”

Because we can never fully comprehend the mysteries of a  transcendent God, there will always exist conundrums and paradoxes, such as the existence of evil, which we will never be able to fully understand.  The question for each of us is whether we need to rationalize all the conundrums and paradoxes in order to have a belief in God?  

Where does faith fit into our rational world of truth and belief?  The existential philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, believed in something called “subjective truth,” which on its face many consider to be an “oxymoron.”   Kierkegaard’s notion of  “subjective truth” stands along side and is complementary to our more familiar notion of “objective truth,”  which are truths and beliefs that can be ascertained using evidence and reason.   Kierkegaard understood “subjective truth” as those beliefs that we personally choose to commit our lives to--making the "leap of faith" to believe and a passionate commitment to that belief.  Kierkegaard believed that the realm of personal meaning and significance is the realm of “subjective truth,” and that it is central to a meaningful life.   In Kierkegaard’s world, there is an equal place for reason and faith in our lives.  They are not in conflict--reason and faith are complementary. As a consequence, one should not disparage or ridicule one mode of belief over the other—each has its own role to play in our lives. 

By way of understanding that there are accepted complementary modes of thinking in other contexts, consider the business world there is a dichotomy in making decisions based on quantitative analysis versus qualitative intuition.  The successful manger has a place for intuition based on his/her experience with making similar decisions, taking into account qualitative considerations (such as employee morale, product quality, customer service, or a perceived paradigm shift in the marketplace), which  considerations may be difficult to fully quantify.  For example, Toyota had the intuition (foresight) that a hybrid car would be successful, whereas the Detroit automakers determined that they were not cost effective.  In business, quantitative analysis and qualitative intuition play complementary roles.

Similarly, in the context of religious beliefs, what is important is that we understand and accept the complementary roles of reason and faith—that they are not in conflict.   Faith is appropriate in the realm of personal meaning and significance.  Reason and faith together have much to contribute in making us whole beings—both reasoning as well as feeling beings. 


 

 

What I believe: Faith is complementary to reason | 0 comments

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