I was listening to a chapter of CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity about Faith (Chapter 11). An interesting chapter full of reflections on human behaviour, sin and how God interacts with us. A short listen. If you are like me, listening is easier than taking the time to sit and hold a book and read. Many of CS Lewis’ writings are on YouTube – so you don’t even need to download an audio book. He is among the authors I enjoy most.
In this chapter Lewis asserts that the tension in believing Christianity is between faith and reason on one side and our imaginations and emotions on the other. This was striking to me.
We live in an age where faith and reason are presented as polar opposites. Religion = faith. Science = reason. Faith is for those who can’t think ideas through and choose to believe. Science is for those that like proof and won’t believe fairy tales.
The past is full of great thinkers who leaned heavily on their faith and their reason. Scientist, artist, theologians all wrote inspired by both.
Hearing this made me realize how far our society has fallen down the slope of anti-Christian rhetoric. The dialogue is no longer, ‘your reason leads you to one conclusion about God and mine leads me to different conclusion.’ Instead, ‘if your reason leads you to believe in God then you are not thinking it through you are not rational, you are motivated by faith.’
This attitude puts the Christian on the back foot, having to not only prove their position but their process as well
I don’t have any answers to this. The best we can do is stay the course and hope that the dialogue improves with time.
Roberta Writes 