It is sometimes argued that a rational faith is a contradiction in terms. The potential rationality of faith is an important factor in the assessment of the meaning of Christian belief.

In assessing the relation between faith and reason, we do well to avoid facile assumptions about the nature of faith. Faith is easily mocked, given that many people hold opinions by faith which on examination are unfounded. So Mark Twain defined faith as ‘believing things you know aint so,” while Richard Dawkins said faith is a blind vice. Twain’s definition has entered popular secular thought as a devastating critique of religion. But if we consider faith more objectively, there is also a role for faith in statements that are true, and this opens the potential for a virtuous path to reconcile faith and reason.

In the philosophy of science and religion, one of the leading great thinkers of the modern enlightenment, the Scottish philosopher David Hume, made a number of astute logical perceptions. Hume held that we cannot know if the sun will rise tomorrow, if there is a necessary connection between a cause and an effect, or if any statements of morality logically derive from statements of fact.

Against these devastating critiques of the limits of pure reason, Immanuel Kant argued that our knowledge in these areas is necessary as a universal condition of our experience. If principles such as causality, morality and regularity of nature did not  ...Read More...