RE: 1984 & A/S/K revisited
April 9, 2013 at 7:23 pm
(This post was last modified: April 9, 2013 at 7:24 pm by Ryantology.)
Faith and reason do not necessarily have to conflict.
The faith of Christianity is certainly in conflict with reason, however. To 'know' God, you must first assume he exists and you must interpret the results to match the assumption because it is impossible to verify in any way. One can never even attempt to 'know' God without being informed of the concept of God by some outside source, which means, at best, that every claim to 'know' God through personal revelation is, at best, massively questionable. That claim goes entirely against the concept of reason.
Personal revelation is demonstrably prone to confirmation bias, and since no one has ever demonstrated evidence to the contrary (and, since that is the only evidence which exists), reason can only lead one to the conclusion that the Christian God is fraudulent to a degree of nearly total certainty.
The faith of Christianity is certainly in conflict with reason, however. To 'know' God, you must first assume he exists and you must interpret the results to match the assumption because it is impossible to verify in any way. One can never even attempt to 'know' God without being informed of the concept of God by some outside source, which means, at best, that every claim to 'know' God through personal revelation is, at best, massively questionable. That claim goes entirely against the concept of reason.
Personal revelation is demonstrably prone to confirmation bias, and since no one has ever demonstrated evidence to the contrary (and, since that is the only evidence which exists), reason can only lead one to the conclusion that the Christian God is fraudulent to a degree of nearly total certainty.
