Last night I went to the second evening event of the Veritas Forum at Harvard. The topic at hand was "Dawkins and the Divine: Is God a Virus of the Mind?" Dawkins was not there (if I remember my "he saids, she saids" correctly, Dawkins follows S.J. Gould's advice not to engage in public discussions/debates about religion with religious people because deigning to do so simply legitimizes religion), but the discussion centered around Dawkins' new book The God Delusion. So unlike my last entry, this "God Question" really is about whether or not God exists and what He's like. Both sides had good things to say, and in the end I guess what was most strongly reinforced to me was the neccesity of falling back on Jesus as the foundation of our faith. What many atheists or agnostics seem to think these days is that among Christians faith is not something that goes above and beyond reason but that it contradicts reason. I think this probably has roots in 19th century American Christianity, but since I know virtually nothing about that, I will say nothing more about it. The point is that this is how faith is viewed today. And I think that the Church as a whole is responding - responding well, too - to this perception by talking more about how faith actually leans on reason an awful lot. We believe certain things about God - why? Because X, Y, and Z - we have reasons. I think the ultimate reason is the historicity of the ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. If those things actually happened, then everything else begins to fall into place. If those things did not happen, then like Paul, we have to say that Christians are the sorriest of people, and we should eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
All in all, a very good discussion last night.
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Blind faith may contradict reason but faith that has its anchor in objective truth does not. In that sense, Faith and Reason are married together. I love what Stewart MacAlister said, "God is not a thing to be studied, not an idea to be grasped, not a concept to be considered, He is a Being to be known." So faith, I think, is first based on reason (historicity of Jesus, for example) and next on relationship. I can see with my mind all the wonderful and amazing things God has done for me over the years.
Anyway, everyone has to have faith in one form or another, even atheists and agnostics. If I tell you that Italy, for example, exists but you've never been there, why should you believe me or anyone else? You believe it because you're told about it. You can look in travel books, watch a television program, and hear people's testimonies of their time in that place. You use reasoning skills that tell you it must really exist, and you accept it by faith without question of contradiction.
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