Faith Vs Reason

No concept or precept is more misunderstood than faith. Faith can survive without reason, but it is impossible for reason to survive without faith. Every decision an individual makes is based on faith.

What confuses the uninformed is this notion that faith is best expressed or explained within a religious or spiritual context. Why should any intelligent person celebrate a man or woman of reason, when reason, itself, is an expression of faith?

Faith, in it's simplest form, is no more or less than a belief in an outcome. Reason, in its simplest form, is no more or less than the belief in one's ability to exercise sound judgment and make good decisions. Is this or is this not an outcome? Even the absence of reason and rationality is an expression of negative unproductive faith.

What we should be celebrating is the triumph of faith over our individual and collective doubts and fears. Everything men and women do is an expression of faith not reason or rationality. The more educated or learned an individual becomes the more he/she believes he/she is acting with reason and not faith, when the opposite is true.

"Come let us reason together." The famous words of the Apostle Paul. How can any person use his or reason if he or she has no faith? Paul was intelligent enough to realize people everywhere have faith in something. Once the process of reasoning is initiated, it becomes self evident, to the informed and uninformed alike, that what is being discussed is a person's faith in his/her own abilities, capacities, capabilities, talents and knowledge.

Once the process of reasoning is initiated, it also becomes self evident that a person is expressing his/her faith in his/her inability to use his/her mind and intellect. This negative unproductive faith is the fundamental reason why so many people have self inflicted psychological problems and are virtually incapable of effective living.

Everyday, and in all kinds of ways, without even realizing it, billions of people demonstrate their most basic faith of all. From birth until death and from morning until night, we express our faith in all the unwritten universal laws and principles that govern the operation of this galaxy. Billions of people have little or no knowledge of them or conscious awareness they even exist.

Everyday billions of people walk on the surface of this planet having absolute and undying faith that the earth will continue in its orbit around the sun. We also have faith that gravity will continue to hold our atmosphere in place and keep us and our water supply on the surface. Faith is the cement that holds our fragile lives together.