Is Faith Reasonable?
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August 17, 2021There are few words in Christianity that are used more than the word faith. You can have faith, live the faith, be faithful, and believe the faith, all in a single conversation. And Jesus tells us that one with faith can be healed (Mk 10:52), receives whatever he asks in prayer (Matt 21:22), and can even move mountains (Matt 17:20), to list only a few things he tells us.
Yet many people are very skeptical of the word faith. Afterall, in an age of science and technology, many see faith as a relic of the past, an outdated and superstitious practice. One critic even described faith as “an assertion of unreasonable conviction, which is assumed without reason, and defended against all reason" [1].
Though I disagree with these objections, I sympathize with them for two reasons. First, some Christians do defend faith on these grounds, saying things like “Of course it isn’t based on evidence - that’s why it is called faith.” This is a poor reason. But secondly, I believe there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the word faith.
For as much as one might think faith is opposed to reason, many Catholics have written at length to the contrary. As Pope St. John Paul II said “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” [2]. Together they soar, but separate they fall, like a one-winged duck trying to fly (my words, not his). “Each without the other is impoverished and enfeebled” [3].
With all our modern era’s skepticism about faith, how can any sober Catholic believe that faith can be in harmony with reason? If we are to follow Jesus’ call to faith, or have any chance at bringing someone else to faith, we had best sharpen our understanding of how reasonable faith can be.
What are Faith and Reason?
I want to start our discussion about faith and reason with the most simple definitions I know: faith and reason are two ways that we know things. They have different methods, but the same goal, which is truth. I can believe something because I have faith in it, or I can believe it because I have reasoned to it. That’s what they have in common, but how are they different?
Reason is the natural ability of the intellect to understand the truth, discover the truth, and prove the truth [4]. Reason tells me things like 2 + 2 = 4 and the number of calories in a Big Mac. These are things that can be discovered or demonstrated by the natural power of the intellect.
Faith is a pregnant word. It has many layers of meaning, which can make it hard to speak clearly about. So let’s make a few distinctions. As a noun, we can talk about “The Faith”, referring to the entire Christian belief and practice, or even just the body of truth claims in Christianity. But for this article, we’re not focused on “faith” as a noun, so much as “faith” the verb, that is, having faith.
Faith (the verb) is a way of knowing truth by placing our trust in someone else. It is when you assent your belief to what someone says because you judge this person (or organization) trustworthy.
Now as I said, faith has many layers of meaning. My simple definition does not do justice to the full depth of the word. But for our purposes here, I believe this definition to be sufficient.Faith and Reason in Daily Life
Anyone who has been betrayed or lied to knows the burn of placing your trust in someone who is not trustworthy. I recall the words of a friend enduring a painful breakup: “How will I ever trust someone again?” This raises an important question: Why bother with faith when only reason is certain of its conclusions? You can’t be wrong if your reasoning is solid.There are two points to be made here.First, “no faith” isn’t an option for us humans. It’s a part of how we live, how we function. Imagine living with, working with, or (heaven forbid) dating someone who refused to have any faith in anyone or anything. Such a person would have to verify everything you say, or at least demand that you present sufficient proof before he will believe you. How could such a person even go on a date? (“She told me a lot about her hopes and dreams, but I’m not convinced until she can prove them to me…”).And consider how much of our knowledge is based on the testimony of others (we heard it on the news; we read it in a book; we heard it from a friend, etc). Many times we don’t actually see the proof for ourselves, so we rely on a trustworthy source who did. As Catholic apologist Trent Horn put it, “we need to have confidence (or “faith”) in the authority of teachers, textbooks, maps, schedules, parents, and the Internet websites, among many other things” [5].Secondly, faith shouldn’t be naive (I say “shouldn’t be” because sometimes it is). The point is, who and what you believe isn’t a matter of blindly dealing out your trust without any good reasons. That would be dumb faith."Who and what you believe isn’t a matter of blindly dealing out your trust without any good reasons."You see, faith and reason work together here. Reason alone is insufferable, but faith alone is naive. Each without the other is a one-winged duck attempting liftoff. Faith needs reason to determine who or what is trustworthy. To a baby, the comfort and caring of a mother is good reason to trust her. The prolonged loyalty of a friend can be enough to place your trust in him.Now I would be naive to pretend that we never get burnt by trusting someone, placing our faith in them. We can place our trust in the wrong people and institutions. Maybe they are wrong, maybe they are lying to us. Sometimes we misplace our trust, or sometimes people and institutions are deceitful. But that doesn’t disparage our use of faith any more than incorrect math homework disparages our use of reason. Just because we can err in our use of faith or reason does not justify abandoning one any more than driving without tires because they sometimes blow out on us. Insanity does not equal caution.Faith in God
Notice that the faith I described above doesn’t have a particular religious ring to it. If God doesn’t exist, people would still need to have faith in one another.But what happens when God enters the picture?Faith in God is not a matter of saying “I don’t know if God exists, so I’m just going to have faith that he does.” Just saying you have faith in something doesn’t make it so (otherwise I would frantically “have faith” that my bank account contained a million dollars).Rather, having faith in God is similar to having faith in another person. You see, Catholics believe that a person can come to the knowledge that God exists through the use of reason (we won’t get into the details of that here, as that will be the topic of a future blog). But after someone comes to the conviction that God exists, he faces a decision point.
In Christianity, God revealed himself to mankind through Jesus Christ, who asks us to believe his words, to trust him, to follow him. This would require a great deal of trust to place your faith in any human to this degree. But what happens when your Creator asks for your trust?
Reason can lead man this far. But only faith can make that jump. Reason has done its job - now it’s faith’s turn. As Kreeft and Tacelli put it, “Arguments can bring you to faith in the same sense as a car can bring you to the sea. The car can’t swim; you have to jump in to do that” [6].Everyday we place trust in people and institutions, but what happens when God asks us to place our trust in him? To one who believes God exists, it would seem like the reasonable thing to do. Yet it is a leap that can only be accomplished by faith.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums this up nicely:
Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man, and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason (CCC 35).
The main point I want to stress here is that faith is a leap, but it isn’t a blind leap. Faith in God isn’t a matter of bashing your head against a Bible until you’ve convinced yourself into believing something of which you aren’t convinced. Rather, the leap of faith occurs when reason leads you to trust God - even if what he says goes beyond what you can see for yourself.Final Thoughts
Faith has always been at the heart of Christianity, an indispensable ingredient. And yet it remains an obstacle to many. Placing your trust in the God of the universe is the most rational thing that a person can do. But it is daunting too. In fact, the Catholic Church teaches that God assists man in the leap with a special grace:
Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth (CCC 153).
Without God’s grace, the leap to trust God would be impossible. But even with this grace, God uses us to help those around us see the reasonableness of the leap. He allows us to participate in the task of leading others on the path to the Lord.
It’s my hope that this article may better help us explain how reasonable faith may be to those who are skeptical. That is, faith isn’t a “blind” leap without evidence. The leap is scary, a jump into the ocean. But if we are to follow Christ’s command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19), then we must make it our mission to help those around us see how having faith can be the most reasonable thing we do.For Discussion
Have you ever encountered someone who was skeptical about faith? Or do you maybe have trouble with the idea of using faith? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Sources1. Aron Ra, “Religious faith IS ‘belief without evidence’“ Patheos, August 29, 2015, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2015/08/29/religious-faith-is-belief-without-evidence/
2. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, Opening sentence, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
3. Ibid, para 48
4. Peter J. Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009), 24.
5. Trent Horn, Answering Atheism (San Diego: Catholic Answers Press, 2013), 24.
6. Peter J. Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009), 24
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