FAITH AND REASON

Sorting out the True Relationships between Faith, Reason, Science & Religion

Joseph D. Renickidnetnm@gmail.net

Grace Church6901 San Antonio NE

Albuquerque, NM

March 9, 2012

Since medieval times the common belief in the Western World was that God had created everything and that there was purpose and meaning in His Creation.

Abstract

But, in the middle of the nineteenth century the Materialistic worldview, a belief system which had been around since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers, began to gain momentum. Scientific advances by Newton in his discovery of the mechanistic workings of the universe (a machine) and Darwin’s theory of evolution as a mechanistic explanation of the origins of mankind (an organism that emerged from the machine), appeared to give credibility to the idea that everything in the cosmos, including life, can be reduced to matter, energy and natural mechanisms governed by physical laws.

According to Materialists, faith and reason are mutually exclusive. Science -- based on reason -- is objective and provides the only reliable means for gaining knowledge about the true nature of reality. Religion however is subjective and a matter of personal preference with no substantive connection to reality.

Some Enlightenment philosophers like Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that while God was Creator of all, He created through natural mechanisms and law where this kind of God (The Master Craftsman) was greater than a God who had to intervene and tinker with his Creation to finish the job (The Cosmic Repairman).

Because of these ideas, in the 18th and 19th centuries there was a general movement in thinking among Christian philosophers (theologians) away from Final Cause in favor of mechanism. Within the mechanistic view two different underlying views emerged.

One underlying view was that God had created a purely mechanistic world in which He did not intervene and as a creation principle, created by mechanism. In this sense, God could be viewed as more of a Deistic God rather than a personal hands-on God.

The other underlying view, the materialistic worldview, was that there was no longer any need or role for a Creator. With the elimination of God from the cosmos there was no longer any basis for believing that there is an ultimate Truth (or if there is such a Truth, it can’t be known), that there are absolute standards of morality and that there is some ultimate meaning and purpose to our existence. This view was supported by atheistic Enlightenment philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

These mechanistic views only have merit if Darwinism -- or something like Darwinism -- is true. Is Darwinism true?

The Church, to a great extent, accepted the growing trends in favor of creation by mechanism rather than creation by Final Cause and the separation of faith and reason inherent in that thinking and in so doing eventually gave up the intellectual high ground it once held. As secular knowledge increased, knowledge of the divine seemed to become less and less relevant. Eventually, Materialism became the dominant worldview in the universities that were once Christian institutions, and from there, the Materialistic world-view spread throughout Western culture.

As for the more liberal churches today who officially accept theistic evolution, they are viewed by hardcore Materialists as… contemptible,

but useful, idiots.

The Materialist’s goal?

The destruction of the foundations of Theism

How?

Show…through science and reason…that there is no longer any place for a Creator in explaining either the workings of the

natural world or the nature of humankind.

Acknowledging how deeply Materialism is now entrenched in all of the institutions of America and in recognition of its mission of destroying the foundations of theistic faith, what should the Christian church do?

Should we be “dangerous”. Should we be a force in our culture to be feared?

The Situation in Public Schools

On Monday they are taught that the mind should reject those things.

On Sunday our children are taught about the things in which their hearts can exalt.

The heart cannot exalt in that which the mind rejects.

“Evolution is the greatest engine of atheism ever invented." (Will Provine, Cornell University)

Faith and Reason

Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to explain the hope that is within you.

(1 Pet 3:15)

The heart cannot exalt in that which the mind rejects.

Framing the IssueFraming the Issue

TWO WAYS OF “KNOWING”

TWO ASPECTS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE

RELIGIONSCIENCEREASONFAITH

REASON & SCIENCE

FAITH & RELIGION

(This is how we are (This is how we are supposedsupposed to think about faith and reason)to think about faith and reason)

The way it is portrayed

Faith

Reason

Beliefs & Values

Facts & Knowledge

Religion

ScienceWhi

ch

refle

cts

real

ity ?

Truth

Truth

The Relationship Between Science and Religion…an Upstairs-Downstairs “Dualism”

Different aspects of

human experience

Different ways of

knowing

Produce different results

Different Natures

(essential being)

Ref: Nancy Pearcey, “Total Truth”

(Upstairs)

(Downstairs)

(subjective)

(objective)

What is the nature of reality?

Is nature chaotic, senseless and pointless?

Or is it rational and ordered ? Does it reflect plan and purpose?

The BIG Questions

What is the nature of our existence?

Is our existence the result of unguided material causes alone?

Or is it the result of the creative work of a transcendent guiding intelligence?

The BIG Questions

The answer defines THE basic Ontological property of our existence

Where did we come from?

What is the nature of history?

Does history wander aimlessly through the ages going nowhere in particular?

Or…

The BIG Questions

Or does history progress inevitably according to universal principles of progress toward some

perfected state?

…is the course of history preordained according to some transcendent plan and purpose?

Is there some Ultimate Truth that underlies reality?

Can we come to a reliable knowledge of that Truth and can we know that it is True?

Or is this “Truth” simply an abstract construct of the human mind (imagination) that has no actual

correspondence to reality?

The BIG Questions

Which worldview -- naturalism or theism -- entails the possibility of knowing Truth?

Can we bring reason to stand alongside faith to withstand the “reasoned” challenges to our

faith?

Is blind faith better than reasoned faith?

Can we have faith apart from reason?

Apologetics – reasons to believe

Faith is the spark that awakens Reason

Can we have reason apart from faith?

Reason prepares the heart for Belief

Is our existence the result of unguided material causes alone or is there a guiding intelligence behind it all?

Dualism – two possible answers

One or the other must be true

Both cannot be trueResults are universal

Answers to these questions speak to the very nature of

reality

Whatever answer may be given to this question, it will have profound implications for the answers we give to these questions.

Does science have anything to say on this subject?

Is science predisposed to give one answer and religion another?

Where did I come from?

How did I get here?

What will happen to me when I die?

Does my existence have any ultimate

meaning or purpose?

How should I live my life and why does it matter?

Does religion have anything to say on this subject?

Is Materialism predisposed to give one answer and Christianity another?

Unguided Material Causes

Guiding Intelligence

No basis for belief in an ultimate meaning and

purpose to our existence

Ultimate meaning and purpose rest with the

Creator

No ultimate foundation for ethics, no absolute

standard of morality

Foundation for ethics and moral standards derive from

character of the Creator

No Freewill No Judge or Judgment No hope

for eternal life

Freewill & Accountability A Judge and

Judgment Promise of eternal lifeNo one is watching! God is watching!

Where did we get our ideas about meaning

and purpose ITFP?

Where did we get our ideas about ethics and

morality ITFP?

Where did we get our ideas about freewilll, guilt, judgment and

eternal life ITFP?

So God created man in his own

image (Gen 1:27)

Pre-existent in the mind of the Creator

Which is illusion and which is reality?

A result of our evolutionary past

Worldview Analysis

No one cares! ……..and He cares!

Underlying Question

DespairDespair Peace and Joy

ITFP - In The First Place

Which do we hunger for?

Scientific Materialism – Its Principles

Rejects as nonexistent all knowledge claims except those gained from the positive sciences

Nature is a closed system of cause and effect relationships

There are no causes other than material causes

There is no transcendent meaning or purpose to life

“Reality” can only be determined by science and reason

Moral philosophy must be derived from a true understanding of this “reality”

Science and Reason lead to objective knowledge, facts and a true understanding of reality

Materialistic Mythology

Religion and faith lead to subjective beliefs, a sense of comfort and provide rules for life

Science and Religion are eternal enemies

Materialism: It’s Fruits

Moral Relativism – morality is reduced to personal preferenceMulticulturalism – all cultures and beliefs are morally equivalent. One “truth” is as good as another…take your pickPostmodernism – rejects all notions of transcendent truth and reduces all ideas to social constructions

Robert Jastrow Astronomer

From God and the Astronomers, Chapter 8, THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE, p 107.

“For the scientists who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak, as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

Heliocentric View

“To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High...”

Founding Scientist

Galileo (1564-1642)

Experimental Physics

Mechanics

“When I reflect on so many profoundly marvelous things that persons have grasped, sought, and done, I recognize even more clearly that human intelligence is a work of God, and one of the most excellent.”

Founding Scientist

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Planetary Motion

“Geometry is unique and eternal, a reflection from the mind of God. That mankind shares in it is because man is an image of God.”

"The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics."

Founding Scientist

Isaac Newton (1642-1747)

Mechanics and Calculus

Mathematical Physics

At the end of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (London, 1687) Newton wrote:

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of His dominion He is wont to be called Lord God.”

Founding Scientist

Max Planck (1858–1947)

Nobel Prize (1918) in Physics

In his famous lecture Religion and Science (May 1937) Planck wrote:

“Both religion and science need for their activities the belief in God…”

Planck concluded his lecture with the words:

“It is the steady, ongoing, never-slackening fight against skepticism and dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition, which religion and science wage together. The directing watchword in this struggle runs from the remotest past to the distant future: ‘On to God!’ ”

The Physicists

Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Nobel Prize (1921) Physics

“I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.”

“The theory yields a lot, but it hardly brings us any closer to the secret of the Old One. In any case I am convinced that He does not throw dice.”

Einstein letter to Born, 4 Dec 1926.

The Physicists

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976)

Nobel Prize (1932) Physics

“In the history of science…it has repeatedly been claimed that scientific truth cannot be reconciled with the religious interpretation of the world. Although I am now convinced that scientific truth is unassailable in its own field, I have never found it possible to dismiss the content of religious thinking as simply part of an outmoded phase in the consciousness of mankind, a part we shall have to give up from now on. Thus in the course of my life I have repeatedly been compelled to ponder on the relationship of these two regions of thought, for I have never been able to doubt the reality of that to which they point.”

The Physicists

Christianity God as Creator The Fall, Law, Redemption The Incarnation The Authority of Scripture Church Age, Eschatology

Rational Christian Theology

Augustine (354-430 AD) Logical Synthesis

Teleological View Metaphysics & Cosmology

- Properties of matter - Inherent tendencies - Natural Law

Logical system- Forms (perception &

reality)- Causes (Proximate &

Final)

Greek Pagan Philosophy*

Geocentric View

* Aristotle

Synthesis of Secular and Revealed Knowledge

Rational Christian Theology – a Created Order

There is an objective reality that exists independent of the opinions, preferences and beliefs of man

The objective of science is to discover that reality, not define it

The natural world exhibits a rational order

The rationality of the natural world and the rationality of the mind of man are the same rationality because -- ……...………………………

Consequently, the natural world is comprehensible to the mind of man and science is possible

When the founders of modern science -- Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Faraday and Maxwell -- etc, were doing science, they were

doing God’s work -- they were walking on holy ground

Faith and Reason led to a true understanding of the nature of Reality as a Created Order and from that understanding modern science emerged

they have the same Author

Modern science arose in Christian Europe -- there, and nowhere else

Two Great Ontological Properties of the Cosmos

Contingency -- the universe had a beginning and consequently it must be dependent on a cause other than

itself for that beginning

Intelligibility – the universe is comprehensible to the mind of man, they have the same rationality

For Materialism these are great mysteries

For Christianity, they are self-evident truths

Faith and Reason are the “eyes” by which we read God’s Books

The Book of God’s Word

The Book of God’s Works

“TWO BOOKS”

Summary

We have our existence in a Created Order

There exists an eternal and transcendent Truth

Life has Meaning

All Truth is God’s Truth (Unity of Truth)

There are two Books written by GodBook of God’s Word (The Scriptures)

Book of God’s Works (Nature)

Faith and Reason are gifts from God, the “eyes” though which we read God’s Two Books