Faith and Reason

The assertion made on this church’s sign is true in general.  Most people, as they learn more about the world around them, especially from a scientific point of view, eventually reject monotheistic religion.  They arrive at an impasse: I can either believe in things for which there is no empirical evidence, or I need to reject that position.

About 20 years ago, I was coaching one of my nephews on his college assignment to write an essay on Pope John Paul II’s work which attempted to reconcile faith and reason.

I explained that this is what Catholics have been trying to do for at least 800 years with the work of Thomas Aquinas, who tried to use the principles of logic as laid out by Aristotle to prove the existence of God.  Descartes picked this back up 300 years ago.

Both are well regarded by theologians today, but this has never worked for me.  As I told my nephew, you can’t have your metaphysical cake eat it too.