Religion: Reason and faith

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Religion: Reason and faith발음듣기

(intro music) Hi, my name is Greg Ganssle, and I am a Senior Fellow at the Rivendell Institute at Yale University.발음듣기

Today, we're going to talk about faith and reason.발음듣기

It's a very popular idea that faith and reason are opposites.발음듣기

That if I hold something by faith, it's not also the case that I have good reasons to hold it. or if I am reasoning about something, it's not the case that I have faith.발음듣기

Some of the reason that it's difficult today to relate faith and reason has to do with how we talk about what we believe.발음듣기

We will use sentences such as the following: "I believe that George Washington existed,"발음듣기

I believe that ice cream tastes good,발음듣기

I believe in recycling, "I believe in God."발음듣기

Notice that the various sentences I used use the word "believe."발음듣기

But we often follow that word either with "believe that" or "believe in."발음듣기

So when I say "I believe that George Washington existed,"발음듣기

I take a sentence "George Washington existed," and I believe that that sentence is true.발음듣기

What I believe, in this sense, is either true or false.발음듣기

I'm either correct about my belief, or I'm mistaken about my belief.발음듣기

Now when we talk about "believe in," it gets much more complicated.발음듣기

I believe in the Constitution. What does that mean?발음듣기

It does not mean "I believe that the Constitution exists," although I do.발음듣기

It must mean something else. It means something like "I have confidence in the Constitution," or "I think it's a good thing," or "I trust it."발음듣기

I believe in recycling is even more complicated.발음듣기

It has to be more than "I believe recycling exists" or "I believe it's good to recycle," because I could tell you that I believe it's good to recycle.발음듣기

But if I never recycle myself, you would say I really don't believe in recycling.발음듣기

To say "I believe in recycling" is to say that I am committed to a certain practice.발음듣기

It's the practice of recycling. So when we say "I believe in," it's very complicated.발음듣기

I believe that has to do with making certain claims, and those claims are either true or false.발음듣기

Reason has much more to do with "I believe that" claims.발음듣기

This is where we can bring evidence to bear.발음듣기

I believe that George Washington existed.발음듣기

There's lots of evidence for this.발음듣기

Every once in a while, I actually have a dollar bill, and his picture's on the dollar bill.발음듣기

Or I've been to Washington, DC, and I've been to the archives, and I've seen his signature on documents.발음듣기

All of these are bits of evidence that my claim, the claim "I believe that George Washington existed," is true.발음듣기

Reason can be brought to bear on "believe that" statements.발음듣기

Now, when someone says "I believe in God," what does that mean?발음듣기

It does mean "I believe that God exists," but it also means something more.발음듣기

For many people, it means not only do I believe the claim that God exists, but somehow God is an important part of my life.발음듣기

I have a commitment to God in some way.발음듣기

And this is a kind of ambiguity.발음듣기

You think of "ambiguity" meaning "the sentence can go in two directions."발음듣기

The sentence "I believe in God" goes in two directions: I believe that God exists, and somehow I make God an important part of my life.발음듣기

I have a commitment to God.발음듣기

So let's get back to faith and reason.발음듣기

In the sentence "I believe in God," which has these two divergent tracks, reason applies mostly to one track: "I believe that God exists."발음듣기

In other words, "I think it's true that God exists."발음듣기

And it's exactly at that claim that reason applies the most: "Is there evidence?", "Are there reasons to think God exists?", "Or reasons to think God doesn't?"발음듣기

Some of the other videos in this series discuss various reasons to think either God does exist or God doesn't exist.발음듣기

This is the application of reason to the question of God's existence.발음듣기

Now, someone who says "I believe in God" also may have a trust or a confidence in God.발음듣기

Some people have complained that religious believers' confidence or trust in God goes much further than what reason can support.발음듣기

So there may be evidence that God exists, but it is nowhere close to bringing certainty.발음듣기

Yet religious believers seem to have one hundred percent commitment to God.발음듣기

There is a lack of proportion between the evidence and the level of commitment.발음듣기

This is one of the accusations against religious belief being reasonable.발음듣기

Now, I think we can make some progress on this problem with a couple of illustrations.발음듣기

Suppose you are going to drive from New Haven, Connecticut to New York City.발음듣기

You get in your car and you are going to drive down Interstate Ninety-Five.발음듣기

If you've ever driven down Interstate Ninety-Five in Connecticut, you know it's kind of dangerous.발음듣기

When you get into your car, you know that you do not have absolute certainty that you will make it to New York without breaking down or without crashing, because people break down and crash every day.발음듣기

So your confidence that the claim "You will make it to New York" is true is less than one hundred percent.발음듣기

But notice you have to get into the car either one hundred percent or zero percent.발음듣기

You commit yourself wholly to the car, yet you know that it's less than one hundred percent certain.발음듣기

Every time you get on an airplane, you know there's a chance the airplane will crash.발음듣기

Now, it's a very small chance, but your certainty you will be safe is less than one hundred percent.발음듣기

Yet you can make yourself one hundred percent to getting on the airplane.발음듣기

There are certain decisions in life that require either one hundred percent or zero percent commitment, and these decisions hold or are binding on us, even if our reason tells us we have less than one hundred percent certainty.발음듣기

This is simply the way these things work together.발음듣기

So faith and reason can be related in this way.발음듣기

We can have evidence perhaps that God exists, but the question of God's existence is not purely theoretical.발음듣기

There may be something where we commit ourselves to God, and that commitment might require going beyond the degree of evidence.발음듣기

Is it reasonable for us to do so?발음듣기

Probably it depends on how strong our evidence is that God exists.발음듣기

So when faith and reason seem to come in conflict, sometimes it's because reason applies to one part of the question, "Is the claim true or false?", but reason is more indirect with the second question, "Should I commit myself?"발음듣기

Now, the final illustration for this point is, if you were ever to get married, you would not commit yourself to your spouse simply in proportion to your evidence that he or she would make a good partner.발음듣기

That's very bad relationship advice. Assess "Is this a good partner?", and then you commit yourself fully.발음듣기

That's the nature of a relationship, that's the nature of getting on an airplane, and that's the nature of what it means to be a believer in God, despite the fact that our evidence might be less than certain.발음듣기

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