(July 17, 2012 at 6:22 pm)Forsaken Wrote: Got this from a theist. Having a hard time deciphering the meaning behind this. Can anyone help what the writer actually means? Looks like "this and that" and god-of-the-gaps, therefore GOD!
Quote:Faith and reason decide what is true. What we know to be true by using our reason and what we believe to be true in faith cannot contradict each other. The supernatural gift of divine faith goes beyond reason (although they do not go against reason). It stands by itself as an independent way of knowing something. Yet it is not the same as direct knowledge about something. It is like knowledge because it states that things really are a certain way. Yet it is often uncertain about why things are this way or how they can be this way.
The believer, therefore must continue to think and use reason to answer the objections that reason itself brings up. Faith then is not the result of an argument; it is not caused by reasoning. It is a supernatural gift from God. And yet a lot of reasoning comes before it and continues inside of it.
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Actually, the argument itself has nothing to do with proving the existence of god. That part is presupposed. The given piece of bull-shit attempts epistemology. What the author is trying to do is subvert reason and establish "faith" as the superior and more reliable means of knowledge.
The question being addressed is the basis of epistemology - how do we know what we know? Do we know it by use of reason - by the use of our mental faculties to observe and deduce? Or do we know it by faith - automatic knowledge without actually knowing the how or why?
Ofcourse, the author knows that no argument can survive outright denial of the validity of reason. Notice the repeated insistence on there being no contradiction between them - inspite of all the evidence to the contrary. The attempt at subversion comes with the assertion that faith goes beyond reason. The implicit assertion here is that in any apparent contradiction between reason and faith, one should go with faith, since it transcends reason. Ironically, the reason given for superiority of faith is that its a "divine gift from god".
The moral here is not that you should abandon reason, but that you should limit it to the extent that it does not contradict your faith - and the purpose behind it is to make your mind subservient to an external authority - in this case, that of god.
