Some people say that religious beliefs can be neither justified nor refuted by reason. However, while sometimes this claim is used as a reason for religious beliefs, at other times it is used to conclude that these beliefs are established by faith. To wha

To understand the role of faith in religion, we can take the Christianity as an example. In this particular religion the concept of faith is centered on God’s self-revelation and, mostly, on His historical presence on Earth. Therefore, faith is much more important for a Christian believer than reason as Christianity is entirely dependent on events that are not to be subject of rational analysis but are just to be either accepted as historical facts or rejected as myths. On this ground, Christian belief is equivalent to a higher kind of knowledge. ‘The basis for faith is divine testimony, not the reasonableness of what God says, but the simple fact that he says it. Faith rests immediately on “Thus saith the Lord”.’ The Christian holy book, called the Bible, comprises all the truth and knowledge needed by a Christian believer and thus shapes and limits all subsequent attempts to understand the world. The confidence and firm persuasion in Jesus’ life and deeds are the major premise for all knowledge claims since the Lord says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’

Not all religions, however, base their doctrines on some unquestionable faith in God. In Buddhism, for example, belief is basically a means to follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, to understand one’s karma and to achieve the ultimate state of enlightenment, called ‘nirvana’. Buddha denied the immortality of the self as well as the obedience to any kind of supreme God. Instead, his religion preaches that ‘we are temporal creations born to lives of sorrow and suffering’. In Buddhism faith comes as the inner power of every disciple to follow his own quest for nirvana, which is to step beyond the limits of both reason and faith as restricted states of his own self.

Gautama believed that the ‘self’ never dies but it only rearranges the elements of one’s identity until it gains perfection. Hence, the ultimate knowledge in this religion rely not only on pure faith in the Gospels, like in Christianity, but also on the whole experience of every Buddhist. Belief here does not impose a universal understanding of life but rather supports everyone in attaining their own nirvana. Yet, most of their knowledge claims presuppose faith because they are not based on something that has happened but on something that would possibly happen if the faith and determination are strong enough. For example, no clear knowledge about what lays beyond death or beyond nirvana is provided and the only close definition of this, which Buddha himself gave, was ‘a condition, where there is neither earth nor water, neither air nor light, neither limitless space nor limitless time, neither any kind of being...’ An essential part of Buddhist knowledge, therefore, depends on the firm belief that an absolutely pure state of consciousness can be reached. No follower really understands the condition of nirvana but it is his eternal hope and underlies every attempt at gaining knowledge.

This overview of both religions implies that religious faith basically means trust. Will it be in something that we are being told or in something that we are supposed to follow, belief lays on the conviction that a thing is right because we feel it is right, although we cannot give any further proofs or explanations.

Often faith is mistaken as opposed to reason only because it evokes emotions but as a matter of fact true faith may be fully compatible with any form of factual evidence, or rational argumentation. To understand this, we can examine the knowledge claims represented by the theory of evolution in the field of biology.

As a natural science, biology gives a precise picture of the world providing undeniable facts and trying to offer irrefutable arguments. Its claims are rational and therefore considered true. The theory of evolution, which is regarded as the backbone of today’s biology, states ‘the scientific idea that plants and animals develop gradually from simpler to more complicate forms’. In other words, an organism advances until its elements reach perfect condition. This knowledge, however, is not confirmed but is merely accepted as rightful. Is, then, evolution not a matter of scientific faith? The theory asserts that living beings have been in constant development since the beginning of the universe. At the same time, the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy in a closed system constantly increases. Both claims are accepted as rightful knowledge but are mutually exclusive. The latter is a fact gained through experiment, while the former is only based on belief.

Like the existence of God, evolution theory is an assumption that believers know to be true but cannot find a real proof of. Evolution is a ‘world view, a philosophy of life and meaning, an attempt to explain the origin and development of everything from the elements of galaxies to people’. As a theory without justification it is only a question of faith. Though many people reject religious claims as gullible, the base of biology also transpires to be unwarranted. Scientific knowledge, then, finds its final justification in certain assumptions or beliefs that may not be rationally grounded. The result is that this science gives an undisputable understanding of the world but its foundations are also a matter of faith. The belief in evolution as something true provides reason and a legitimate basis for other knowledge claims. Therefore, faith in biology is as important as facts themselves.

As a conclusion, I would like to point out that faith and reason are interrelated because they both suggest confidence. Belief implies personal emotion when it is connected with religion. But in the field of science it involves a strong desire to enrich ourselves with understanding of the world and as Paulo Coelho says: ‘when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.’  In that case having faith does not go, as it is usually considered, beyond the limits of rational thinking but rather sets the grounds for obtaining knowledge. Belief even serves as a cornerstone to any kind of understanding which is not gained by experience. Therefore, it can be considered a legitimate basis for knowledge claims but only if it does not confine and prevent this knowledge from being further developed.

Bibliography

1. Atkinson, Geoff . "Faith and Mathematics." Geoff Atkinson on Faith and Mathematics. Oct 2001. University of Pittsburgh. 11 Feb. 2006 <http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/GCF/fl_papers.math.html>.
2. Buddhism Beliefs and Practices. 11 Feb. 2006 <http://contenderministries.org/buddhism/beliefs.php>
3. Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
4. "Evolution: Fact or Faith?." Evolution: Fact or Faith. 11 Feb. 2006 <http://www.ch-of-christ.beaverton.or.us/Evolve.htm>.
5. Ezekiel 11:15
6. "Faith in Christianity." Faith in Christianity. Wikipedia. 12 Feb. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_in_Christianity>.
7. John 14:6
8. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 4th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2003.

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