Often, when we try to come up with a rational answer to important issues, we end up spinning ourselves into a logical web, and find that we are more lost than when we started. When thinking about God, people often try to pit science and rational inquiry against his existence. I have found myself troubled when thinking about issues that rational people would not assume was God ordained. In other words, sometimes God’s existence doesn’t seem rational.
It is interesting to put faith against rationality, and I will rationally argue in favor of faith over rationality. The thing about faith is that it brings more faith. By virtue of the absurd, once one makes the initial leap of faith, that is if it is genuine faith, they will surely find faith and grow in faith. For if they were to seek faith and instead find doubt, then they never made the leap of faith in the first place. Conversely, those who seek rational truths only find rational doubts. As the old adage goes, true wisdom is merely the knowledge that we actually don’t know anything. So, what rational person would choose rationality? It is like being stuck in a hole and trying to escape by digging deeper. Pure truth can only be found in faith, but quite ironically, rationality causes people to act irrationally. God is the truth, and as it is written, those who seek God with their whole hearts will find him. Unfortunately, many people, such as myself, often try to seek with our minds instead of our hearts. I argue that faith must surpass rationale when pitted against each other.
Faith certainly does surpass rationality or science. Where science must have an end, or a quantitative limit, faith goes beyond that and fills every void it seems. I struggled with this gap between faith and science for years, until I realized that while I can't argue science, I will accept it. Furthermore, science does not limit faith, and they can co-exist, as do the heart and mind. We need both to be whole.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that I find so much comfort in the abandonment of reason. For so many, to abandon reason is to abandon discernment, direction, and purpose. However, I've found that when I choose to follow Faith, to listen to God in my heart, I am lifted away from the drudgery of responsibility which is often imposed by reason. To relinquish rationality in favor of faith is to transpose responsibility from one's own sense of reason to the object of one's faith, in this case God. Not suprisingly, God always seems to handle that responsibility better than I do.
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