Reason + Faith?

It can be said that God can initially be discovered in two fundamental sources: nature and sacred scripture.  These are starting points for a relationship with God.  They are also the stopping points for some of the Catholic Church's most staunch critics.  Secularists and atheists, and their like, cling to science and a belief system we can call scientism. 

Fundamentalist protestants hold to a belief system called fideism.  We Catholics are often confronted with these two polar opposite belief systems that claim on one hand we believe in a fairy tale God or on the other hand have corrupted the faith by using our minds to understand God and his revelation.  Are reason (using our minds to attain wisdom and understand our existence) and faith (conforming ourselves to sacred revelation) really mutually exclusive and at odds with each other?  There is another way that is distinctly Catholic and if renewed can help us reach an increasingly lost and confused world.

Let’s briefly look more closely at these two opposing approaches to the world.  Scientism is the belief that what is true must be observable.  All else is simply opinion and superstition.  It contends that only science can prove what is really true.  However, science uses a starting point that already assumes things it cannot prove, such as the existence of the world and that the world operates according to laws.  Scientism is ignorantly dependent on philosophy - the application of reason in the search for wisdom.  It is inadequate to answer the preeminent questions about life, existence and meaning which are the focus of beneficial philosophy.  While it is only capable of looking at limited explanations of observable phenomena, we certainly do not want to discard what science discovers.  Afterall, God is the God of science too.

Fideism turns only to sacred scripture and firm belief in what is revealed there.  If there is ever something from scientific discovery or theory that seems to contradict scripture, then the scriptures must prevail and the science should not be trusted.  This is a type of reductionism that throws out reason and science in our contemplation of existence and reality.  It is also patently unbiblical.

Did you know that Catholics believe that humans can know things by reason alone, even things about God, without divine revelation?  The book of Wisdom states: “For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.”  Likewise, Saint Paul tells the Romans, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Rom 1:20).  And our faithful Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms this: “Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God…The proofs of God’s existence…can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.”

A better way is the union of faith and reason. This is the Catholic way.  Philosophy professor Dr. James Jacobs puts it this way: “In the Catholic tradition, faith is inextricably intertwined with the rational truths known by philosophy.”  Philosophy is referred to as the handmaid of theology.  Theology is the knowledge of God and how we should respond to Him and that knowledge which is expressed in religion.  Again Jacobs explains, “philosophy shows a natural kinship with religion, since they both seek ultimate explanations, principles that show that life has a transcendent source of meaning…Religion accepts these ultimate principles on faith; philosophy establishes them through reasoning about the natural world.”

Using our reason to understand and navigate life is fundamental to the human existence.  Pope Saint John Paul II put it this way: “All men and women, as I have noted, are in some sense philosophers and have their own philosophical conceptions with which they direct their lives. In one way or other, they shape a comprehensive vision and an answer to the question of life's meaning; and in the light of this they interpret their own life's course and regulate their behavior.”  We all ask the question, what is the meaning of life.  If we do not find that answer in God we will find it in man.

In our current day and age there is a preponderance of belief that man can define his own truth.  This is called relativism.  We are at the point where those around us believe that there is no transcendent meaning and truth that we must conform ourselves to.  The only truth they desire is that which empowers man to seize and use whatever can satisfy the desires of the flesh.  Have you heard someone say that they are living their truth as if their truth is the only real truth.  This search for our own truth is based on looking deep within to find what we truly desire and making decisions exclusively in light of that truth.  This philosophy of life completely abandons love as willing the good of the other.  It is a self-love that wills the good of myself as I see it.  We have arrived here in large part due to the separation of faith and reason.  Once intertwined and elevating our minds and life to God, modern society has turned its gaze downward to man as the arbiter of good.

Therefore, it is very important to evangelism in our current context to deploy reason in our efforts to overcome obstacles to belief in God.  Our non-believing brothers and sisters are trained by the current zeitgeist to be supremely suspicious of religion and faith.  Reason and philosophy can be our gateway to prove to these precious people that God exists and that He is good.  Philosophy perfected by Catholic faith and aided by the Holy Spirit opens the mind and heart to divine revelation.  Once this hurdle has been cleared the magnetism of Jesus’ love and mercy becomes nearly irresistible.  Afterall the salvation of souls is the mission of the Church and every Christian.

My call to action for each of you beloved in the Lord, is to begin the slow and methodical journey of discovering the basics of Catholic philosophy.  Read some books and talk to your pastor. There are many introductory books on the topic to choose from.  You do not need to become a master of philosophy in order to gently and lovingly address the errors in our neighbors world view.  And I dare say that your own faith will be deepened, and your own journey enriched.