[lit-ideas] Re: Faith
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 10:54:30 -0400
>PE: Except that for Kierkegaard, faith is not irrational and is most certainly
>compatible with reason. K. does argue that the decision of faith is not a
>rational one, and may in fact appear irrational, but as Wittgenstein will
>later argue, just because something is other than reason does not make it
>irrational.
So... it's not rational and it's not irrational. But, Phil will allow that
K allowed that the "decision" of Faith is "not rational". Is it
"irrational"? Is "Faith" itself maybe supra-rational? Can there BE such a
thing?
"Yet I think the "reason and faith are allies" view hasn't made much
>headway, unless you count CS Lewis as headway."
>
>It has made tremendous headway. What is Christian fundamentalism except
>perhaps the most rationalistic and modern of faiths? As always, the issue
>is not whether one is being rational or not but where one starts from. And,
>as Kierkegaard most thoroughly demonstrates, where one starts from is not
>itself determined by an act of reason.
This is very interesting although seemingly incompatible. Can there be ANY
acts but rational (i.e. decisive) ones? I think we must start to
strenuously define what we mean by rational and irrational. How can there
be anything that is neither? Apparently, I suppose with faith, any degree
of rationality MUST be completely ignored. This explains to me how
intelligent people (and especially scientific people) can possibly be
religious. It can, in fact be the ONLY explanation. It just seems concocted
though. I'm very interested in this, but every time I try to bring up the
subject, those of you who ARE religious get offended. I mean no offense, I
need an explanation.
almost completely irfaithful,
Paul
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
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