Lara Buchak's Can It Be Rational To Have Faith

Are faith and reason compatible? This is the main question that Jeff Jordan attempts to answer in his writing, "Not in Kansas Anymore". Jeff believes that faith or religion is compatible with reason or philosophy, but he argues both sides. Some people believe that they are not compatible because philosophy tends to weaken the dogmatic mindset, attacks conventional wisdom, and takes down widespread beliefs. Jordan takes all of these arguments analyzes them and shows us why he believes they are compatible.

In a world where religion represents a crucial role in the lives of countless people, there is no doubt that it influences an individual’s daily decisions. There are numerous religions that have been created, although the most significant ones have been widely practiced for centuries. Each of the world’s major religions have distinctions that set them apart from others. Consequently, these distinctions cause turmoil between religions due to individual biased opinion for their God. Followers of a religion suppose that their faith is designated as the most favorable and true religion of all practices.

Overall, the rational is but an attempt to define the undefinable. To understand Otto’s rejection of the rational, the rational must be understood. “Rational,” in The Idea of the Holy, refers to the conceptualization of religion and the divine itself. Otto’s basic definition of the rational stems from the establishment and application of concepts evidenced in “they can be grasped by the intellect; they can be analyzed by thought; they even admit of definition. An object that can thus be thought conceptually may be termed rational” (Otto, 1).

“Tell the truth.” Everyone has heard that countless times before. Since we were young we have been taught that telling anything but the honest truth is never acceptable; however, lying has appeared to play a massive part in society. It has effects in people’s daily lives such as teenagers taking a parent’s car and saying they went to the car wash when really it was taken for a joy ride, all the way back to ancient times where the Greeks lied about the Trojan horse being a gift when really it was just a cover for an attack. It is acceptable for lying to occur among today 's society due to its ability to preserve dignity, provide safety, and protect important relationships.

After reading “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Age of Reason” by Thomas Paine, I will discuss the relationship between religious faith and logical reason. Do we need to make people have a fear of God to prepare them for salvation like Edwards wrote? Should we give them a chance to use their reason to discover their faith like Paine discussed? Can we combine religion with reason? Jonathan Edwards believed in the punishment of an angry God on his wicked Israelites.

3.11 Faith Another of the three theological virtues is faith. The author says that when Christians speak of faith, they mean it on two different levels. First, it signifies simply a belief — accepting the doctrines of Christianity as true — which Christians recognize as a virtue. This belief manifests itself as a part of searching out statements and deciding on the soundness of them. Therefore, if we believe the evidence that supports Christianity is creditable, we say, subsequently, we have faith in this Christian idea; however, our imagination and emotions may cause us to distrust the idea.

In his essay "The Will to Believe" William James tells us that his purpose is to present "a justification of faith, a defense of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logical intellect may not have been coerced." Page2. I found his arguments also persuasive because he suggests the existence of God cannot be solve by our intellectual means. James argues that intellectual activity is motivated by two goals: to shun error and believe truth. The choice to believe or not is alive, forced and momentous.

The relationship between faith and science is also something I think about when looking at my worldview. I believe that faith is most important, but in order for there to be faith in creation, the scientific aspect of how things were created by God can prove that faith. As for science, I use faith as the basis of scientific knowledge. Therefore, faith must support any scientific findings and vice versa. Faith and science work together, indirectly, supporting the ideas of the world so that we may even have faith to begin

Furthermore, faith helps the world by encouraging greater understanding and tolerance for various religious views, offering inspiration and direction to those who are suffering with their own faith, and bringing attention to the dangers of religious persecution and

Argument Against the Argument of Pascal’s Wager In Pascal’s Wager, Pascal pioneered new thoughts and opinions amongst his peers in probability theories by attempting to justify that believing in God is advantageous to one’s personal interest. In this paper, I will argue that Pascal’s argument rationalizing why one should believe in God fails and I will suggest that even if one was to accept Pascal’s wager theory, this will not be a suffice resolution to reap the rewards that God has promised to Christian believers like myself who has chosen to believe in God due to my early childhood teachings, familial and inherited beliefs. Pascal offers a logical reason for believing in God: just as the hypothesis that God's existence is improbable, the

Rodrigues. This supports how faith assures people of the things that they do not understand and how their belief of God is truly a mystery in a sense that it is beyond their capacity to understand, such as how the act of renouncing their faith strengthened their faith even

Pascal uses a peculiar format to argue the practical advantage of believing in God outweighs the disadvantage of not believing in God. Some religious believers argue this way of deciding your faith is an insult to true faith because they believe Pascals over simplify true faith into a simple game of poker. Pascal’s Wager states the possible outcome of being a believer in God and the possible outcomes of not believing in God. With the outcome provided from Pascal’s Wager, people can now decide whether to become a believer or not based on the possible outcomes. In this essay, I shall demonstrate the reasons behind agreeing with this claim.

Now faith is defined as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. In the stories The Song of Roland and Dante’s Inferno both main character’s faith was tested on their spiritual quest to salvation. Roland was betrayed and outnumbered by his enemies and Dante was lost in the darkness of sin. As each man faced difficult situations on their missions, both relied on their faith to overcome their enemy, persevered through obstacles and refused to turn back.

Furthermore, another example of faith playing a role in deciding if knowledge we acquire have purpose and meaning in our personal lives is the creation of the universe. For people, who put their faith into believing in God, it is shared knowledge that God is the creator of everything. In Genesis 1:1 verse 1 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surfaces of the water.”

Does bias also play a role with faith? By including possible ways of knowing, faith could be a relatable aspect of the formation of a bias. The families of the young Zimbabwean girls are aware of the possible tragic circumstances but are influenced by their moral judgment which could be rather based on faith and their embedded cultural tradition. Knowing these facts, the families make a decision, whereas, some families make decisions after their finances. In many cases, the families of child brides are rewarded greatly, a sort of bride price.