Recently I've been deeply involved in an email discussion with a group of people I know from my college years. We all went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, and graduated at about the same time. Calvin, as you may have guessed from the name, is a religious liberal arts college. It has ties to the Christian Reformed Church of North America (which is an off shoot of the Dutch Reformed Church).
In the 15 (or so) years since we graduated, many of the people on this email list have given up on religion. They identify themselves now as atheists. They all were raised in deeply religious families but have turned away from that as adults.
When they learned that I was being ordained as a pastor in the PC(USA) a discussion around the topic of faith vs. reason erupted. One man in particular seems to really want to believe in God, but his reliance on scientific proof will not allow him to.
I was reminded of this discussion on Sunday when Bruce was preaching on prayer. At one point he made the comment that no matter how much evidence one builds up, it will never equal faith. He pointed out that faith is not like a mathematical equation where fact + fact + fact = faith. But so many of us are stuck in that way of thinking.
Reality-based thinking is a good thing. (I'll just put that out there.) But, religiously-minded people believe that what we see is not exactly what we get. Creation isn't WYSIWYG. We believe that there is something more. Something beyond. As Tiffany said, something transcendent.
Ultimately, it is as Lee Strobel says in The Case for Faith:
"...Faith isn't about having perfect and complete answers.... After all, we don't demand that level of conclusive proof in any other area of life. The point is that we certainly do have sufficient evidence about God upon which to act. And in the end, that's the issue. Faith is about a choice, a step of will, a decision to want to know God personally. It's saying, 'I believe - please help my unbelief.'"
Faith vs. reason is a false argument. Faith requires reason - it should be consistent with our experience. But faith ultimately goes beyond reason. It goes beyond what our human minds can know and prove. And that is why it is faith.
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