Question: Do you think faith and reason are compatible? Why? Why not?
I personally think that faith and reason are completely incompatible. The simplest explanation for this is that reason relies on facts, evidence and experience while the basis of faith lies upon unproved beliefs. Using definition, we can say that faith and reason are opposites to each other. Centuries ago, when science had not yet told us the way our world functions and what humans are made of, people could only rely on faith to find explanations to the processes of life, such as bad harvests, reproduction and rainfall. Today, we can study physics and biology in order to answer those questions. I do not see any reasoning in faith, and disagree with the concept that faith leads to reasoning. Some claim that science derives from faith in the way that scientists put faith in their hypothesis before testing them. However, the difference between religion and science is that scientists have rational ways to conduct experiments in order to assess the validity of their hypotheses. When the tests have been performed, scientists accept or disregard their studies based on whether the data supports them or not. On the contrary religion has no logical way to be tested, because most of it consists of supernatural entities and ethics. Every single religion lays down its own vision of how life was made and what the purpose of life is, which is not rational in any way, considering our scientific and technological improvements. Even within the same religion, different people have different interpretation of holy texts and symbols. In addition, whereas reasoning is malleable in the way that hypotheses can be refuted, religion is solid and unchangeable. Our rational understanding of the world evolves alongside science, while our religious beliefs and the faith we put in them does not.
Faith is disregarding logic and reason in order to believe something simply for the purpose of wanting to. Reason is accepting that the world functions a particular way on the basis of fact and evidence. Because there is no facts in religion, and no possible religious faith in reasoning, faith and reason are incompatible.
I personally think that faith and reason are completely incompatible. The simplest explanation for this is that reason relies on facts, evidence and experience while the basis of faith lies upon unproved beliefs. Using definition, we can say that faith and reason are opposites to each other. Centuries ago, when science had not yet told us the way our world functions and what humans are made of, people could only rely on faith to find explanations to the processes of life, such as bad harvests, reproduction and rainfall. Today, we can study physics and biology in order to answer those questions. I do not see any reasoning in faith, and disagree with the concept that faith leads to reasoning. Some claim that science derives from faith in the way that scientists put faith in their hypothesis before testing them. However, the difference between religion and science is that scientists have rational ways to conduct experiments in order to assess the validity of their hypotheses. When the tests have been performed, scientists accept or disregard their studies based on whether the data supports them or not. On the contrary religion has no logical way to be tested, because most of it consists of supernatural entities and ethics. Every single religion lays down its own vision of how life was made and what the purpose of life is, which is not rational in any way, considering our scientific and technological improvements. Even within the same religion, different people have different interpretation of holy texts and symbols. In addition, whereas reasoning is malleable in the way that hypotheses can be refuted, religion is solid and unchangeable. Our rational understanding of the world evolves alongside science, while our religious beliefs and the faith we put in them does not.
Faith is disregarding logic and reason in order to believe something simply for the purpose of wanting to. Reason is accepting that the world functions a particular way on the basis of fact and evidence. Because there is no facts in religion, and no possible religious faith in reasoning, faith and reason are incompatible.
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