3.3.4

Discussion Points: Reason & Belief in God

Test yourself

Can God be Known Through Reason Alone?

There are scholarly debates over whether or not God can be known through reason alone.

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Karl Barth

  • Many would say that God cannot be known through reason alone.
    • Karl Barth believed that it was a form of arrogance to imagine that fallible human reason could lead people into any knowledge of God.
  • Revelation, he thought, only happens when God decides.
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What is 'knowledge of God'?

  • The statement, ‘can God be known through reason alone’ begs too many questions as to what ‘knowledge of God’ actually means.
  • If it means that some people believe that God exists, then this is not innate knowledge.
  • This is because it could be taught through schools, parents or culture.
  • If this means knowledge of God is intrinsic but not everyone knows this explicitly, then the claim is worthless.
    • The statement is untestable. It is simply not possible to know whether all people have knowledge of God.
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Christian arguments

  • Christian teaching is that the Fall has marred the image of God.
  • So, no one can know God through their own will, reason or desire.
  • Augustine was a firm believer in human reason being flawed.
    • If that is so, certainly human reason can’t be used to gain knowledge of God?
  • However, is it not reasonable to believe that a loving God who created humans would have made some way for those humans to contact Him?

Is Faith Sufficient Reason for Belief in God’s Existence?

There are scholarly debates over whether or not faith is a sufficient reason for belief in God’s existence.

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Arguments for faith

  • Roman Catholics see faith as being something that works alongside reason.
    • It is about 'buying in' to something that you have reasoned to be true.
  • St Thomas Aquinas wrote about the nature of faith and the ways in which it complements and differs from other kinds of knowledge.
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Thomas Aquinas

  • In Summa Theologica, Aquinas explores how empirical and logical knowledge ‘scientia’ is certain because we can see the evidence in front of us.
  • This could be either through our senses or by using reason.
  • Faith, in contrast, does not have this firm self-evident certainty.
    • So, faith is a voluntary choice, ‘an act of the intellect assenting to the truth at the command of the will’.
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Arguments against faith

  • Richard Dawkins and other atheist thinkers believe faith provides insufficient reason for belief.
  • Moreover, Dawkins would argue faith can actually be harmful.
    • It encourages people to be lazy in their thinking and avoid trying to reach any kind of certainty.
  • Dawkins believes religion is a virus and prevents us from gaining scientific knowledge.
  • David Hume, in the 18th century, claimed 'A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence'(An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1739-40).

Jump to other topics

1Philosophy of Religion

1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato

1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle

1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body

1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation

1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason

1.6Religious Experience

1.7The Problem of Evil

1.8The Nature & Attributes of God

1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic

1.10Religious Language: 20th Century Perspective

2Religion & Ethics

3Developments in Christian Thought

3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings

3.2Death & the Afterlife

3.3Knowledge of God's Existence

3.4The Person of Jesus Christ

3.5Christian Moral Principles

3.6Christian Moral Action

3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology

3.8Development - Pluralism & Society

3.9Gender & Society

3.10Gender & Theology

3.11Challenges

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