It is often said that faith, or religion, and reason are complementary sources of knowledge. However, this warrants critical appraisal, and I refute this claim using two premises. For the purpose of this argument, it must be made clear that it is faith that makes religion unreasonable. I propose that, reason and religion are fundamentally in conflict. Secondly, that because of this fundamental difference, it is unreasonable to believe something that is based on faith alone. Therefore, religious belief and attempting to prove the existence of god is unreasonable and is thus incompatible with reason. I contend however, that being atheist or agnostic can be considered reasonable, as there is no reliance on faith.
Not only is faith unreasonable …show more content…
Rationalism, by definition is truth determined through reason rather than faith, dogma or tradition. Fideism however, defines faith as independent of reason and that it is more necessary in obtaining truth than knowledge gained by evidence or reason. Reason and rationalism are based on empirical evidence and logical thought, whereas faith is independent of these features and thus cannot be reasonable. With this distinction, and the fact that religion is based on faith, we can see that reason and religious beliefs are …show more content…
If we are to believe that god is the creator of all things, then there would be no point in further scientific discoveries concerning the nature of the universe. We cannot simply take things we are incapable of explaining through science, and rely on faith to do this for us. This idea has slowly developed into what we call science today. In order to make true scientific progress, it is necessary to purge science from religion, on the grounds that it is not compatible with reason. Perhaps it is true that reason and science were once compatible with religion. However, after the Enlightenment’s vast scientific discoveries, and new technological advances, human scientific knowledge has become much broader, and we no longer need faith to explain certain aspects of the
Not only is faith unreasonable …show more content…
Rationalism, by definition is truth determined through reason rather than faith, dogma or tradition. Fideism however, defines faith as independent of reason and that it is more necessary in obtaining truth than knowledge gained by evidence or reason. Reason and rationalism are based on empirical evidence and logical thought, whereas faith is independent of these features and thus cannot be reasonable. With this distinction, and the fact that religion is based on faith, we can see that reason and religious beliefs are …show more content…
If we are to believe that god is the creator of all things, then there would be no point in further scientific discoveries concerning the nature of the universe. We cannot simply take things we are incapable of explaining through science, and rely on faith to do this for us. This idea has slowly developed into what we call science today. In order to make true scientific progress, it is necessary to purge science from religion, on the grounds that it is not compatible with reason. Perhaps it is true that reason and science were once compatible with religion. However, after the Enlightenment’s vast scientific discoveries, and new technological advances, human scientific knowledge has become much broader, and we no longer need faith to explain certain aspects of the