Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
how do faith and reason coexist
what is faith to me essay
how do faith and reason coexist
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: how do faith and reason coexist
To provide a reasonable point of view on this topic, one has to first establish what faith means at a personal level in order to indentify how it serves as a basis for knowledge in religion and natural sciences. Faith is regarded in various ways; commonly as reliability on someone/thing, religion, beliefs, and others. An English dictionary generalizes faith is a “strong or unshakeable belief in something, especially without proof or evidence” . Essentially, in this context, faith is the solid unconditional belief of something with little evidence or proof. With the definition stated, we can now focus on the matter in hand, its strengths and weaknesses.
Religions are, for the most part, guided by the beliefs of those who choose to profess them; in other words, what they have faith in. The choice of profession is up to the individual; it is also usual to see people who realize that their faith inclines towards a different direction and proceed to change what their religion was. What one follows or believes in usually has a strong impact on the person’s life. It is common to see people wearing religiously symbolic items, such as a cross hanging from a necklace, or families getting together to attend the weekly mass (or other cult-like activities). Ultimately, all of these customary behaviors are directly affected by people's knowledge about their religion.
Religion is, habitually, an established dogma. The Bible, for example, established the basis of the Christian faith, the Quran for the Islamic one, etc. One chooses to what extent one is going to follow its path. Faith is the limiting factor here; where one of its weaknesses becomes visible.
A sad example of the extreme extents of faith is the people who have such a strong devo...
... middle of paper ...
...rals, and therefore better the community. On the contrary there are religions were the “right thing” is not as clear, and what one believes to be right might not be viewed in the same way by the rest of the world. The extent of one’s faith determines to what point one is going to follow a religion.
The constant argument between religion and sciences is also influenced by faith. The belief that religion is the answer helps individuals to not require having a feeling of knowing the answers to the greatest philosophical puzzles of life, its existence, or creation. Those who support science have a more reasonable explanation (according to them) to what goes on around them. We are not to make religion and science clash, we should acknowledge both and allow them to coexist. We are curious in nature; we will always try to get answers even if we do not know the questions.
Many people struggle to properly defend their faith when confronted about it and even waver in their faith when presented with doubts against their faith that sound convincing. This is because many do not move beyond a basic understanding of their faith and fail to learn the fundamentals of Christian faith. The book Truth Matters: Confident Faith in a Confusing World by Andreas Köstenberger and the film God’s Not Dead (Harold Cronk, 2014) present both similar and different viewpoints on defending one’s faith adequately. Arguments addressed by both the book and the film include the credibility of people, a concept of morals, and the existence of evil.
In my opinion Paul Tillich makes the most valid point regarding the nature of religious beliefs as defined by him in “What faith is?” Religious beliefs have faith as its underlying principle. Tillich defines faith as “the state of being ultimately concerned and that the dynamics of faith are the dynamics of man’s ultimate concern” (Tillich1). Man has many concerns which encompass his day to day survival, however; unlike other creatures his concerns include matters that are social, political and spiritual in nature. Man’s quest to find answers to these concerns that transcend matters of day to day physical existence is addressed in the realm of spirituality which Tillich and other Theologians define as faith.
The definition of faith is, as a strong belief or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. The fact that someone has faith doesn’t mean that they won’t face difficult circumstances, such as renunciation, the loss of a loved one, or deception; rather they trust in their god or gods to carry them through their troubling circumstances to the other side. The Great Aten, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Hebrew Bible all includes, aspects of faith; including creation, love, and the loss of a life.
Today, faith is the cornerstone of all major religious knowledge claims because there is no definitive way of...
If you were to take a survey on views of faith, you would come up with a million different definitions. To me, faith is taking risks in situations where there is no fear of the outcome. Faith is confidence, sureness, and bravery. If you have no faith, then you have no reason to go out in the world and survive. Faith is also a positive mindset and energy you embody. According to the book, “What is Faith?”, the author, Terrence W. Tilley feels that faith is a relationship between the one who has faith and the irreducible energizing source of meaning and center of value in one’s life. In the definition, “One” means the object of faith and the relationship between them. He takes the concept of faith from a late writer, David Foster Wallace, to key point his argument in the book. Wallace’s concept was that we don’t understand what faith is and how faith shapes the course of our lives. Tilley supports his claim by discussing the common misunderstandings of faith.
For many people, religion is a very touchy subject. For most, it is a personal decision; people choose a faith that aligns with their beliefs, ideas, and faiths. Although people would like to think that religion is a personal decision, and they can adapt it to how they feel and what they believe, in practice, that is not the case. Religion represents a commitment to a set of principles that are not moldable, adaptable, or flexible. Religion, although it may be a personal belief, it is extremely defined, with little to no room for flexibility. If people try to modify their religion to their own beliefs or ideas, the pushback can be severe. The lines in religion and faith as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable are clear, and crossing them can bring serious consequences.
Religion, which is meant to enhance the faith of it followers, has done the opposite. The practices of religion have become overwhelmingly factual that the faith component of religion has vanished. In order to be a genuine beliver one must comprise an authentic faith. Both religious leaders and followers must realize that their religion is not factual, but sustained through faith. The key to the gates of heaven is faith, not facts.
I feel that Faith and reason are correlated in many aspects, and are vital to one another. Reason precedes faith in the process of knowing God’s existence and reigning power; although one cannot truly know the reasoning of something to be known without knowledge first. Faith is built on spirituality surrounding one’s cultural beliefs, behaviors, and ...
Pope John Paul II once said, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Fallible Blogma) Based on this significant and powerful quote, one can infer that faith and reason are directly associated and related. It can also be implied that the combination of faith and reason allows one to seek information and knowledge about truth and God; based on various class discussions and past academic teachings, it is understood that both faith and reason are the instruments that diverse parties are supposed to use on this search for truth and God. There are many stances and viewpoints on the issues of faith and reason. Some believe that both of these ideas cannot and should not be combined; these parties deem that faith and reason must be taken as merely separate entities. However, this writer does not understand why both entities cannot be combined; both terms are so closely compatible that it would make sense to combine the two for a common task. Based on various class discussions and readings, there are many philosophers and theologians who have certain opinions regarding faith, reason and their compatibility; these philosophers include Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The following essay will examine each of the previously stated philosopher’s viewpoints on faith and reason, and will essentially try to determine whether or not faith and reason are ultimately one in the same.
In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my belief that faith and reason are both needed to gain knowledge for three reasons: first, both concepts coexist with one another; second, each deals with separate realms of reality, and third, one without the other can lead to cases of extremism.
Faith has several strengths and weaknesses when used as a basis for knowledge in religion and the natural sciences. In order to fully analyze these strengths and weaknesses and determine which of the two is more prevalent, faith, religion, and the natural sciences should be distinguished from one another. In The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary faith is defined as the “belief and trust in God” or “allegiance to duty or a person” (270), religion as “an organized system of faith and worship” (617), and science as “knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method” (650). Faith may be considered a strong basis for knowledge in religion as religion is usually built around the concept of faith. However, faith may be a weak basis for knowledge in religion as certain teachings in a religion may not have a direct link to the concept of faith. Similarly, in the natural sciences, faith may also be seen as a strong basis for knowledge as a scientist has faith in the hypothesis he may be testing. Likewise, faith may be perceived as a weak basis for knowledge in the natural sciences as faith and the natural sciences tend to offer incongruous solutions to the same problem.
In exploring what faith really is, we must remove the stigmatism of being purely religiously based. Faith, in its truest form, is the reliance and complete confidence in a set of principles, standards, person, thing, doctrine, theory—anything that cannot be fully proven. While most of faith appears in a religious context, faith can be used in many different ways and in different subjects. The classic example of a chair comes to mind when exploring the meaning of having faith: scientifically, the person must retain the faith that the chair will hold him up when he sits down. This lies in true in science in discussing the forces of the universe throughout the galaxy, scientists cannot yet understand all the knowledge concerning the forces of space, but scientists have faith in the continuation of the forces and account for what is assumed will happen with the forces.
The role of faith has been debated among many theologians, scientists, and philosophers. It has been greatly discussed and depicted throughout history as whether faith is logical when it comes to religion or whether faith is completely absurd. In this essay, I will focus on the role of faith through the lenses of Christian philosophers Sorean Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Faith plays an important role in Kierkegaard and Tillich theology; I will critically examine their depiction of faith and compare and contrast their passages. Kiergarrd view of faith is that it is completely absurd where as Ti
First off, it is important to realize that religion and science have to be related in some way, even if it is not the way I mentioned before. If religion and science were completely incompatible, as many people argue, then all combinations between them would be logically excluded. That would mean that no one would be able to take a religious approach to a scientific experiment or vice versa. Not only does that occur, but it occurs rather commonly. Scientists often describe their experiments and writings in religious terms, just as religious believers support combinations of belief and doubt that are “far more reminiscent of what we would generally call a scientific approach to hypotheses and uncertainty.” That just proves that even though they are not the same, religion and science have to be related somehow.
Growing up I was raised in a religious household, so, of course, I’m a big believer in God and my faith. To me, God is the creator of all and I believe Judgment Day is going to come very soon.The definition of faith is the belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion. My faith and the reason for my faith goes hand in hand because it makes me know the truth and opens my eyes to this world. Also, I get clarity of why I’m in this world which is to make it a better place. But seeing the world as faith with reason or reason with faith has a few challenges and can make things a little bit difficult. Same goes for science and religion which butt heads a lot. Some may feel that the Big Bang Theory created