Fideism In Defense Of Christianity By Kierkegaard

727 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Genesis 1:26-27

Fideism suggests that in the fight between faith and reason when searching for truth, faith prevails as a more effective means of arriving at certain peculiar truths. Fideism is the opinion that religious belief is contingent on faith or revelation, rather than reason, intellect or natural theology. In this vein, it is in direct contrast to the doctrine of Deism. More precisely it opposes evidentialism, the view that no belief should be entertained unless it is backed by evidence. As a result, it maintains that theology may include logical inconsistencies without apology. It may or may not also involve active criticism of the claims of reason (Geisler, 1976). Often when you encounter an atheist or an agnostic you may feel …show more content…

Ultimately, religion is a matter of the heart. Kierkegaard, for example, draws comparison between the person who speaks in “defense of Christianity” to a person who admits being a lover and offers “three reasons” for the greatness of his beloved. He mentions that there is an unholy inversion in the business of having to prove everything first. Kierkegaard wonders if it ever occurs to anyone in love to demonstrate the purity of love with three basic reasons. People no longer believe, and as such they try to help themselves with the manufactured legs of a little scientific scholarliness (Kierkegaard, …show more content…

God created humans in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) in contrast to animals, which act mainly on impulse, we mirror our Creator in our ability to display such qualities as love and justice. And in similarity to our Creator, we have free will and we can affect our future. The Bible admonishes us to “choose life by listening to his voice,” that is, by choosing to obey his commandments. In Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 the bible says “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them”. (Geisler, 2013)

Show More
Related

  • The Ethics of Belief by William Clifford: The Moral Obligation to Justify Your Beliefs

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is crucial that every belief must be thoroughly explored and justified to avoid any future repercussions. Clifford provides two examples in which, regardless of the outcome, the party that creates a belief without comprehensive justification ends up at fault. It is possible to apply the situations in The Ethics of Belief to any cases of belief and end up with the conclusion that justification is of utmost importance. Justifying beliefs is so important because even the smallest beliefs affect others in the community, add to the global belief system, and alter the believer moral compass in future decisions.

    Read More

  • Kierkegaards View on Faith

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher in the mid 1800s. He is known to be the father of existentialism and was at least 70 years ahead of his time. Kierkegaard set out to attack Kant’s rational ethics and make attacks on the Christianity of our day. He poses the question, how do we understand faith? He states that faith equals the absurd. In “Fear and Trembling”, he uses the story of Abraham and his son Isaac to show an example of faith as the absurd. The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac signifies a break in the theory that ethics and religion go hand in hand. He shows how the ethical and the religious can be completely different. “I by no means conclude that faith is something inferior but rather that it is the highest, also that it is dishonest of philosophy to give something else in its place and to disparage faith” (Fear and Trembling, 12).

    Read More

  • Rationalism, By Titus Lucretius Carus

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    Religion gives rise to and is born with the unreasonable and uninviting desire to make man at home in what seems to be very close to an uncaring world. With this being

    Read More

  • Sociological Approach To Religion

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    Religion is a symbolic representation of society. The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, “Why are people religious?” We express our participation in religious events through plays, acts of confession, religious dances, etc. To begin to understand why we have such term, let’s understand the common elements of religion. There are different types in which people believe in or follow and that is: animatism, animism, ancestral spirits, god and goddesses, and minor supernatural beings. Beyond these different elements, such one is to have religious leaders to follow.

    Read More

  • Racism in Black Boy

    504 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I simply can’t feel religion.” Richard, an atheist, was unclear about religion. From his hard adolescent life, he neglected religion. This often ignited clashes with his grandmother.

    Read More

  • Protest Atheism: The Myth that Denies God's Existence Due to Evil

    1850 Words  | 4 Pages

    Theology is an intentionally reflective endeavor. Every day we reflect upon the real, vital, and true experience of the benevolent God that exists. We as humans tend to be social beings, and being so we communicate our beliefs with one another in order to validate ourselves. Furthermore atheism has many forms, three of the most popular atheistic beliefs include: scientific atheism, humanistic atheism and the most popular one being protest atheism. Scientific atheism is the idea that science is the answer for everything and god is not existent. The humanistic approach states that society is self-sufficient; therefore God is not needed for survival. Therefore how could he exist? The position that I will argue in this paper is the pessimistic idea of protest atheism.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Existence Of God By David Hume And Karl Marx

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    With so many religions out in the world today it only makes it harder for man to feel they are in the right religion. However, it would probably be a lot easier to follow Marx’s and Hume’s religious views where religion does not exist. Between both philosophers Marx’s is the hardest in critiquing religion since it discounts the belief of religion, claiming its poison for man. Hume’s doesn’t completely discard the idea of religion; just for the moment, religions have no cause and affect making it irrational. One can feel this idea can change is religion actually have a cause and effect. I feel by the time man finds the answer for religion, that same day I should find out what came first the chicken or egg?

    Read More

  • Sorean Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich's Views on the Role of Faith

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Religion in Things Fall Apart

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    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, is extremely defined, with little to no room for flexibility.

    Read More

  • The Compatibility of Faith and Reason

    1234 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many Catholic thinkers who have addressed this topic, most notably John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, or Faith and Reason in English. In it, he attempted to point out that faith and reason are not opposed to each other and that faith does not contradict reason. Rather, they actually complement each other. This is clear from the very beginning of the encyclical, which states: “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 the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves. (FR 1).” Truth is discovered through the interacti...

    Read More

  • The Philosophy Of Religion By Chad Meister

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Introducing Philosophy of Religion, Chad Meister asserts “there are several components (that) seem to be central to the world religion: a system of beliefs, the breaking in of a transcendent reality, and human attitudes of ultimate concern, meaning and purpose” (Meister 6). Throughout my life, I feel that religion is one of the core social belief systems that people use to maintain what they feel is a good way to live. Giving them a sense of purpose or fulfillment during their earthly life, most hoping whatever beliefs that have will help them after death. Even though there are many different religions or religious value systems, everyone has most likely been exposed to one or more. There is only 15% of the world’s population that do not believe in one type of religion or another (Meister, 7).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of God As A Creator and Sustainer

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Peterson, Michael. A. A. & Hasker, William. Reason and Religious Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Quinn, Phillip L. A Companion To The Philosophy Of Religion.

    Read More

  • The Nature of Faith

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    While faith alone cannot be said to necessitate truth, it is by no means useless as a basis for knowledge in the areas of knowledge of religion and the natural sciences. Faith allows a knower to make the decision of what is knowledge and what is not, even when the knowledge claim cannot be justified by evidence or empirical reasoning. Yet simultaneously, this quality of faith renders it useless in finding absolute truth. In the natural sciences, faith can be seen as both a necessity, as it is essential for the building of knowledge, and yet also it must be challenged, as the advancement of science is through the disproving of current theories.

    Read More

  • Religion Vs. Philosophy

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    " Religion is not just a social, cultural, political, or ideological factor; instead it finds its power in the personal chambers of the soul of the individual. Within the soul we discover the source of the private motivation that forms perceptions and behavior ( pg 7, Rediscovering the Kingdom)."

    Read More

  • Essay On Human Nature And Free Will

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human nature is about free will, and using one’s free will for good acts. We know free will exists because living things are being changed day after day. Any act, from walking across a room to deciding to eat a meal, is because of free will. We are given free will and with that, the ability to create our own, unique path in life. Free will provides human beings with freedom, judgement, and responsibility. Every human being is born with the capability to live a good, just life. However it is just as possible to live an immoral life led by bad choices. This notion of endless options in life is made possible by God’s gift of free will. No two human lives will ever be the same, because no two people will ever have the exact same experiences their entire lives. Every human being is shaped by experience, which comes from our actions, which are results of free will.

    Read More

More about Fideism In Defense Of Christianity By Kierkegaard

Open Document