Is faith irrational?

According to many critics of Christianity, faith in it is devoid of reason and irrational in nature. Whilst there can be rational disagreement in morality or politics, criticism in art and literature and various interpretations of history Christianity has central issues which are supernatural and thus its claims are counter to what we know. Miracles like Jesus turning water into wine or walking on water or most dramatically in the resurrection when his dead body returns to life or in healing's like curing leprosy or blindness without medical intervention.

We say that these things are impossible and contrary to the known laws of nature and science. It has long been held that we perceive reality as what our five senses tell us through sight hearing, taste, smell and touch, that objects around us are solid to varying degrees. We live in a material natural world. Our brains are merely receptors of the physical world around us, our thoughts, ideas and emotions all working by electrical and chemical impulses. Critics also add that Christianity because it is irrational in this area becomes dogmatic and authoritarian in its general view of people and society and because it has absolute fixed ideas rather than flexible relative ones. This makes it prone to intolerance and this seed of faith at its worst leads to violence, evil and the subjugation of human rights.

But how true are these ideas, is faith really irrational?  Physicists tell us that the objects we see are in fact mostly empty space and a construct of the perceptual equipment of our minds. That objects have no colour being mere electromagnetic waves. Einstein said that reality has an "illusory quality". We assume that consciousness is a construct of matter but it could be just as likely that matter is a construct of consciousness. In quantum physics we are told that our world is not so much solid particles but more a collection of overlapping wave functions. This is termed by some physicists as "veiled reality". Consciousness we know is real and creative and essential to perceive things. It is also imaginative, curious and reasoning. Reality in this way begins to look like something akin to a mind. Scientists have been brilliant at explaining the material world to us but know very little about the subjective nature of cognition and how it works. Could God be such a mind that we are made in his own image?

Such a God we see as being outside of time and space, eternal, invisible, and spiritual. Rather than being concerned with the physical life of survival and pleasure seeking, we are instead to seek his mind and spirit through acts of love so that we partner with him in that purpose. Is this the real purpose for our reasoning, imagination and emotion and the object of our endeavours? Is the physical just the means through which the spiritual is meant to be manifest?  We do not know the exact nature of God but through faith in what seems improbable or even impossible we begin to experience life in a different way. It’s not so much having faith in faith as some might say but rather experiencing what faith does for us, opening up a new dimension to our being. This seems more rational than physical things creating themselves out of nothing, more credible than nothing going bang and trillions of particles of chemical elements arranging themselves in a random mathematically impossible way to form the incredible diverse and complex life forms we see in the universe.

Should we take part in the kingdoms purpose of love in eternity rather than pass on a brief legacy in history which may or may not endure after our death? Good rather than evil, Hope rather than resignation, Life rather than death all engender feelings of optimism. Jesus through his teaching and ministry is showing us the limitations of the physical world and leading us on the path to a spiritual life encountering God. He shows us that we are liberated when we are faithful, selfless and loving by enhancing the spirit of God to that purpose and points out the limitations of rules, regulations and laws.

In one sense Christianity does hold absolute fixed beliefs but ones which place love and grace at the centre. Violence oppression and evil are human problems, Christians have been guilty of such at various times in history but the teachings of Jesus are opposed to such things and have more often been used as a significant motivating factor for good. Inspiring systems of law and justice, medicine, education, just causes, charity, philanthropy, scientific advance,democracy and personal transformation. If an ‘’irrational’’ belief inspires good and a fact leads to evil Which is the most beneficial to humankind? 

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