Faith and logic
At BLOGOS Joel states;
"I openly admit that the presuppositions underlying my commentary are those of a biblical worldview. I personally endorse and believe whole heartily that "In the beginning God..." and from this flows a logical, coherent and practical life-system."
I admit I hold this same opinion and further that the search for this coherence is tantamount to a search for truth. While I do hold this presupposition I question the wisdom of the singular use of logic in the search for this life-system. Logic depends on rules derived from truth tables. If the table is incomplete then the likelihood that a rule is in err is great. If even a single rule is in err the system fails and the derived life-system is neither logical nor coherent. If we accept logic and reason as the only valid means for determining what is true then our faith is in our ability to reason.
The faith of a believer is not in himself but in God that what He says He will do, He will do. This faith requires of us a life-system that many times seems void of logic and incoherent. At these times we are shown the limits of our reason
offered by Kc | 11/09/2005 07:44:00 PM
4 Comments:
Augustine understood that our "faith seeks understanding".
I think Joel would agree.
Brandon thanks for commenting. I considered that some may take this as a commentary on BLOGOS and that is the last thing it is! I borrowed that statement because I strongly agree. ;-)
I am questioning my own method, and those like me, who constantly require something to make sense to us before we can accept it.
I quoted Augustine to make a statement about christian faith - not primarily about Joel or his blog. You say:
"If even a single rule is in err the system fails and the derived life-system is neither logical nor coherent. If we accept logic and reason as the only valid means for determining what is true then our faith is in our ability to reason."
I submit that it is our faith which serves as the basis for our logic. By faith one accepts a set of axiomatic truths about life/reality; these are commonly called presuppositions. Francis Scaeffer has stated that there are two foundational axioms to the christian faith:
1) God is there - that is God exists.
2) He is not silent - He has and does communicate, primarily in His Son, Jesus, also in the scriptures.
All christians must affirm these axioms in order to speak rationally about reality. No one who denies these can be a christian, or at least an intelligent one.
From the acceptance of these propositions, by faith as it were, we can speak rationally, logically, about life and reality. This is how I interpret Augustine's saying, that "faith seeks understanding"; starting from propositions which were revealed to me by faith from god, I can rationally interact with reality. Help any?
Brandon thanks. I didn’t intend to imply that you misunderstood my choice in quoting BLOGOS, I was only taking the opportunity to explain in my comment though I can easily see it seems I was addressing you. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
“I submit that it is our faith which serves as the basis for our logic”
I would agree with this statement and I think that it is, in part, a paraphrase of the quote from Joel.
“starting from propositions which were revealed to me by faith from god”
While I would say by God through faith I still like this very much. I suspect that many tend to overlook the fact that this is an experience and not a deduction.
My post is intended to address what happens next. We have the foundation and the capacity for reason. We add to that our experience then deduce a set of truth tables whereby we judge any other ideology to be reasonable or unreasonable. Our table is incomplete yet we will only allow it to be altered by our own experience. Any judgment is then based on our singular experience. I am questioning if it would be better to be more open to the experience of others and to those experiences yet to come before making any judgment. We could then form a suspicion of what is true that could be tested against, not only our own experience, but that of others as well. What do you think?
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