Transcript Faith and Reason

Faith and Reason
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
-John 1:14
This is a great mystery… -Eph 5:32
The Holy Family
with Painted
Frame
-Rembrandt
The intellect is a gift from God
• Faith has never conflicted with my reason in my experience.
• Reason may challenge my expectations and beliefs about God
• Reason is not the same as rationalization.
St. Augustine
One view of reason
• Reason consists of the use of logic to determine what is true.
• Example
– A car is an automobile
– An automobile has 4 wheels
– Therefore a car has 4 wheels
Mr. Spock
Knowledge built by logic
• Statements are true if they can be reduced to logically correct
statements
• Can we reduce moral truths, religious truths, philosophical
arguments, scientific laws to logical certainty to accept them as
true?
• In this framework, all knowledge is derived from an axiomatic
foundation
The tower of Babel
Axioms
• An axiom is a statement taken without proof.
• Mathematical systems require a set of axioms: laws of operation.
• All philosophical systems which say anything must contain
axioms.
• Are axioms true?
– (case of non-Euclidean
geometry)
Circle Limit IV
MC Escher
Logic alone leads to a paradox
• Attempting to show that a system of axioms is consistent leads
to paradoxes.
• Consider the statement “This statement is false.” Is that a true
statement or a false one?
• Godel proved that any
axiomatic system leads to
such paradoxical
statements.
• They are self-referential.
Hands Drawing Hands
MC Escher
Reliable Truth
• “… the problem of gravitation converted me into a
believing rationalist, that is, into someone who
searches for the only reliable source of Truth in
mathematical simplicity.” - Albert Einstein
• But… rational truth is unreliable. Knowledge of this
world will pass away and all that will remain will be
Faith, Hope and Love.
• “Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will
Albert Einstein
be brought to nothing …. if knowledge it will be
brought to nothing… At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. “ -1
Cor. 12:8-13
• The only reliable source of Truth is Love
– And this is known only by Faith.
St. Paul
Another view of reason
• We need not ground all truth in logic. We can rely on our sensory
data as valid: You are here in this room…
• The truth is that which conforms to empirical scientific laws.
Newton’s Rule
• In experimental philosophy, any propositions gathered by induction from
phenomena shall be held to be true either accurately or to the best
available approximation – notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses, until
other phenomena occur by which they may either be made more accurate
or liable to exceptions. - Newton
Science is not truth itself but a belief “held
to be true”. Science withholds judgment of
truth.
The scientist is not really personally
involved in the Truth. He is a distant
observer of the facts of nature.
Isaac Newton
Science involves the scientist
• Scientific experiments are performed by a human person who can
affect the outcome of his or her experiments.
• Because of this the scientist must understand himself to truly
understand his experiment.
• But self cannot know the self in isolation - this is self-referential.
• I think – but who am I who thinks “I think”
– an endless loop…
Cartoon Charles Addams
The limitations of human reason
• Reason as logic does not lead to reliable truth the consistency of an axiomatic system is
unprovable.
• Scientific empiricism is unreliable
– scientific “truths” are not Truth
– the scientist must understand to himself
Postmodernism?
• Relying on our intellect or senses we reach the state of
postmodernism – a realization that human reason is insufficient to
understand the complexity of existence.
• As Christians we must go through this and engage the modern era.
The narrowing of Reason
”Faith … is courage to exist and an awakening to the greatness and breadth of
what is real. Faith is an act of affirmation; it is based on the power of a
new Yes, which becomes possible for man when he is touched by God. It
seems to me important … to emphasize clearly the essential reasonableness
of faith. In a criticism of the modern period, which has long been going on,
one must not reproach its confidence in reason as such but only the
narrowing of the concept of reason…” –Pope Benedict XVI
The living God finds us
• When we admit we have no hope of understanding truth on our
own - we become humble enough to allow God to find us.
• I can not understand myself or the world on my own.
• In relationship with the living God I find an answer. For in this I
recognize that I am existing in relationship with One much bigger
than myself.
God finds us in our intellect and
senses
• “This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning,
what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we
have looked upon and our hands have touched, we speak of the
Word of life.” - 1 John 1
• We touch and see the Reason Himself every time we go to Mass -
this can only be seen in the light of Faith - but Faith is not a denial
of the senses or the intellect.
• Faith is an affirmation of God’s love for us.
It is not a denial of anything. It is an
affirmation of all that IS - for God IS.
God finds us beyond our senses
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The Truth is Mystery – a logical paradox.
The paradox of the incarnation. “We hold Truth in earthen vessels.”
The paradox of the cross: “To live you must die.”
Thinking about a paradox leads to:
– Humility through which we let God into our lives.
– Prayer in which we reach out to God.
– Contemplation in which we talk to God without words.
St. Theresa of Avila
A Final View
Rembrandt’s
Three Crosses
Christ is Reason made flesh… This is a great mystery.