Introduction to Faith
Religion and faith
It is important to believe; faith is something that cannot be imposed on people without the true understanding of God, miracles that can be done, and other concepts attributed to faith. Another thing, in this case, is the religion that can be imposed on people with other religions. The age of Christianity can be considered the most violent in terms of the religion that was spread throughout the world in the form of faith in God (the only right God was the one chosen by Christian people).
Camus (1955), as well as McKinnon (1968), claim that religion is absurd and leaves no space for the real faith; whereas he also defends the idea that faith should not be perceived through some intellectual prism rather it should be a concept kept by people as an experience of the world (p. 28). It is necessary to differentiate between faith, religion, and church. Different views are presented in the discussion of faith and reason; Garelick (1965) suggests the concept of being human as the one being interested in eternal happiness. Faith is something in the heart or soul of people, whereas religion is a set of rules created by a church to do what the church people do.
Historically, the concept of God was associated with religion and faith; however, Hume (2008) claims that ‘the most ignorant ages have acknowledged’ the existence and essence of God (p. 8). Religion has been analyzed by many researchers and writers wishing to bring to consideration their personal vision of religion and its relation to people and different life concepts (Derrida, 1998; De Vries, 2008; Haught, 1990; Schleiermacher & Oman, 1994).
Religion and faith are believed to be connected. Nye(2008) involves the discussion of such concepts as gender, culture, and power that do not seem to be relevant to religion. However, further consideration demonstrates a direct relevance of faith to the contemporary perception of culture, differences between genders, the concept of power, and other issues important for the understanding of humans.
Faith in terms of being human
Faith can be treated as one of the concepts that make people the ones we are. Human beings are never confused or associated with animals or other representatives of the natural environment. However, some people deserve being incorporated as an animal because of their behavior. Bass (2010) addresses different issues of the everyday life of ordinary people; a way of thinking, daily procedures, hospitality, and ability to deny, and other concepts are analyzed with regard to moral and faith.
Van Pitte (1980) introduces the relations of faith and reason presented by Descartes who thought that “reason can be autonomous only if what it identifies as true is entirely unassailable” (p. 344). It is disputable whether faith is appropriate when doing something about the house, though we should demonstrate faith in ourselves and in our strength to do something worthwhile. Smith (1998a, b) tries to explain the chain of causes with regard to the reasoning which can be used while reasoning the faith.
Hannay (2003) presents the concept of reason by Kant who believed in reason as an integral part of free will (p. 16) which can determine the existence of God. Nash (1994) presents the discussion of faith with regard to religion, Christianity, and the idea of God’s existence. It is disputable whether the faith of human beings indicates their belonging to the human civilization.
To Be Human: Faith and Reason
Family and education
Family and education are issues existing in the lives of most people. Faith is an aspect relevant to family and education in terms of the accumulation of knowledge. If the family is a cradle of faith for a person, he/she is more likely to become a person full of faith. Faith is a concept that can be taught as well as any other school subject or some general rule of conduct. Children have a right to learn about the faith and some examples of being faithful from the Bible.
When the family makes an effort to embed an idea of the existence of a God into a child’s mind, this can be a total failure after exchanging knowledge and experience with other children whose families did not manage to explain a concept of God and faith to child. Faith should not be faced as an integral part of all people as it can be learned.
Human beings were created in accordance with God’s wishes and ideas. The primary image of human beings was deprived of evil thoughts and actions. Faith is an element incorporated into the human mind and soul. People were not supposed to have some doubts concerning God and his/her deeds and the consequences of the actions. Miracles are supposed to be treated as miraculous actions with miraculous consequences, whereas people try to explain everything and discredit the concept of God and miracles. Faith should go without saying; most parts of people deny the existence of God, though they cannot explain all phenomena.
As claimed by Hume (2008), natural religion is a universal issue contacting explanation to all human questions and doubts; the existence of God is natural as it is ‘the ground of all our hopes, the surest foundation of morality, the firmest support of society’ (p. 8). A God is presented in this case as the only concept not reasoned by human beings. However, the concept of faith cannot be attributed to the concept of family.
If a family is a source of knowledge for people at a certain age; when a person grows, he/she starts acquiring knowledge from outside the family. The consequences of different information are unpredictable. If the family was an example of faith, a person can acquire some knowledge irrelevant to a faithful life and the concept of God regardless of religious beliefs. Polanyi (1961, p. 238) suggested the ideas by John Locke who denied the faith as something universal and ‘knowledge that lies beyond the range of observation and reason’, whereas this is exactly beyond all explanations. As soon as a family is not able to support the faith in one of its members, it becomes an unnecessary survival of the past.
The family was created in order to keep its members faithful and devoted to the ideas of God. Thus, family is not the universal instrument to keep people faithful. Moreover, it often appears as a source of doubts and reasoning irrelevant to genuine faith.
The concept of a lost soul
The lost soul is one of the concepts that can help in the analysis of faith and reason. All souls are considered to be pure from the very beginning of their existence, whereas life makes them choose ways to reach certain goals. Under the pressure of circumstances, historical background, or ignorance people can lose their true way in life and their souls are lost in the typhoon of evil and unfaithfulness. Thus, Pope John Paul II presents the philosophy connected to theology in the form of a circle: “Theology’s source and starting-point must always be the word of God revealed in history, while its final goal will be an understanding of that word which increases with each passing generation” (pars. 73).
All people are considered to be born as a result of sin; our life is sinful as well. When a child comes to this world, he/she does not know about the concepts existing in this world. It is the task of the child’s parents to explain that something is good and other things are evil, however, nothing is said about the in-between state.
People are not aware of difficulties that can be encountered in life. Wippel (1995) supports the idea that by defending the concept of God and free will given by God to human beings the faith can be controlled and developed. Thereby, faith is a method to direct the lost souls towards salvation and God. Nevertheless, Rogers (1866) denies the concept of faith and introduces the idea that there should not be ‘blind adherence’ (p. 319).
Some people express skeptical views concerning the faith as it appears which does not make this concept irrelevant to human lives. Some people desperately need something to believe in and their faith in God rather than in their personal traits helps them to overcome difficulties. The idea that faith is inside of us was suggested by Pope John Paul II (1998); he claimed that we should know ourselves, our souls, and should control the knowledge and faith.
Moreover, faith is believed to be the concept relevant to all human beings; and God is inside of us that makes it unnecessary to search for a scientific explanation and reasoning the concept of God as it appears. It is irrelevant to go to church if you are not able to do this because God is inside and faith helps us to believe that everything in the world is beyond his/her supervision.
Society and religion
The society is an organism which has been created in order to be good and kind, while God did not control the actions of human beings; people could have been created good in their nature (Strobel & Vogel, 2002, p. 14). Mander (2008) suggests that faith should go beyond the human reason in order to state the concept of God and religion; the author claims that not every religion can be considered genuinely true and worth following and believing which makes his presentation of philosophy combined with theology a precious idea supported both philosophically and theologically.
James (1927) introduces the religion as the one consisting of questions and facts, whereas the reason is a logical explanation of faith where the reason presents the explained and rational conclusions and faith is satisfied with ‘probable and practically wise’ conclusions (pp. 197-198). Swinburne (2005) claims that the concept of God and the existence of God should be rather discussed with regard to natural theology which deals with natural religion (p. 138); however, the faith is a concept of individual perception of god and related issues.
It is not natural to believe in something because someone says it is so, though people with a little life experience should trust those who say that something is good or evil. Wolterstorff (1998a) introduces the faith as believing in some issues only because the God says so. The same idea was previously suggested by Aquinas and supported by John Locke (Wolterstorff, 1998b).
Conclusion
Faith and reason can be analysed via life experience of generations. Human beings had an eternal question of religion, God, and faith and could not find an appropriate and relevant answer. Some thinkers and scientists deny the concept of God and religion by claiming that everything should be explained and understood, while other philosophers try to explain these concepts within the boundaries of human mind and reason for having faith.
It is still the matter of every person whether to have faith or not, whether to believe in God and miracles or not, whether to be religionized or not. Faith and God can be easily opposed to religion, whereas some people cannot recognise differences between the blind adherence to traditions and something that the Holy Bible suggests as the words of God. When the concept of faith is approached as something that should be reasoned, it cannot be regarded as faith anymore. Some philosophers tried to implement the discussion of the existence of god to the concept of faith, however the faith is neither determined nor directed by God because the faith in one’s strength to overcome certain difficulties in life is a greater gift than faith in god that cannot be defined and explained.
References
Bass, D. C., 2010. Practicing our faith: a way of life for a searching people. 2nd ed. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.
Camus, A., 1955. The myth of Sisyphus. Justine O’Brien, trans. New York: Vintage Books.
Derrida, J., 1998. Faith and knowledge: the two sources of ‘religion’ at the limits of reason alone. In: J. Derrida & G. Vattimo, ed. Religion. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Ch.1.
De Vries, H., 2008. Religion: beyond a concept. New York: Fordham University Press.
Garelick, H. M., 1965. Anti-Christianity of Kierkegaard. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Hannay, A., 2003. Kierkegaard and philosophy: selected essays. London: Routledge.
Hume, D., 2008. Dialogues concerning natural religion. New York: BiblioBazaar.
James, W., 1927. Reason and faith. The Journal of Philosophy, 24 (8), pp. 197-201.
Schleiermacher, F. & Oman, J., 1994. On religion: speeches to its cultured despisers. London: Westminster John Knox Press.
Haught, J. F., 1990. What is religion?: an introduction. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press.
Mander, W. J., 2008. The philosophy of John Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McKinnon, A., 1968. Believing the Paradoks: A Contradiction in Kierkegaard? Harvard Theological Review, 6 (1), pp. 633-636.
Nash, R. H., 1994. Faith and reason: searching for a rational faith. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.
Nye, M., 2008. Religion: the basics. 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Polanyi, M., 1961. Faith and reason. The Journal of Philosophy, 41 (4), pp. 237-247.
Pope John Paul II, 1998. Encyclical letter, Fides et ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II: to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the relationship between faith and reason. United States Catholic Conference.
Rogers, H., 1866. Reason and faith: with other essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Smith, M., 1998a. Reasons and causes: The problem of wayward causal chains. In: E. Craig, ed. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Smith, M., 1998b. Reasons and causes: The normative character of reason explanations. In: E. Craig, ed. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Strobel, L. & Vogel, J., 2002. The case for faith: a journalist investigates the toughest questions to Christianity. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.
Swinburne, R., 2005. Faith and reason. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Van Pitte, F. P., 1980. Descartes’ role in the faith-reason controversy. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 40 (3), pp. 344-353.
Wippel, J. F., 1995. Medieval reactions to the encounter between faith and reason. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Wolterstorff, N. P., 1998a. Faith and reason: the relation of faith to theorizing. In: E. Craig, ed. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Wolterstorff, N. P., 1998b. Faith and reason: the rationality of faith. In: E. Craig, ed. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.