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I have frequently heard that belief in God is strictly a matter of faith, and that reason doesn't apply in this instance. As a former atheist, having been brought up with science and logic, I considered the use of reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge. Naturally, I thought that faith was a waste of time, and it was certainly not a means of attaining knowledge that there exists a deity. But as I evolved and explored different philosophies, and as I conducted my own inquiries, I began to realize that faith and reason are not all that clear-cut, and that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I developed a belief system that was not based on blind faith, but on a large amount of reason, combined with a little bit of faith. To understand this better, let's take a look at the process of reason and how we acquire knowledge in developing our beliefs.

Reason is a process by which you make observations to gather information, and then identifying and integrating the information provided by your senses to form concepts. From this, you make decisions about what to believe or what to do. Existing concepts can be integrated with new concepts derived from further observations and information to build on your previously acquired knowledge and thus, expand your knowledge base.

Reasoning involves analyzing information and coming to some conclusion based on supporting information, from which a decision can be made. Such a process forms an argument, which consists of a set of premises that provide evidence or reasons from which a conclusion can be inferred. There are two types of reasoning which I will now outline.

Deductive reasoning is where if the premises are true, then the conclusion is necessarily true, and no additional information will change that. The truth of the conclusion is guaranteed as long as the premises are true. An example of deductive reasoning is as follows. All men are mortal. John is a man. Therefore, John is mortal. Deductive reasoning is useful in many everyday situations, and it relies on existing information, but when we're dealing with philosophy and spirituality, where we wish to increase our knowledge and understanding of these, we have to turn to inductive reasoning.

In inductive reasoning the truth of the premises is such that the conclusion is likely to be true, but it is not certain, and additional information may influence the likelihood of the conclusion's truth. Inductive reasoning enables us to make a generalization about an entire system without having to analyze all of it, by examining a sample of its components. For example: John is mortal, Mary is mortal, and George Washington was mortal, therefore, all people are mortal. Based on the premises we can say that it is likely that all people are mortal, but this is based on a sample of only three people. If we based the conclusion on a larger sample, say 100 people, then the conclusion is more likely to be true. But the only way to be absolutely certain of that is to sample everyone who has ever lived, which would not be feasible. For that matter, how do we know that everyone who is now alive will eventually die? Based on previous experience that all people from the past have died. But we still can't be 100% certain, only reasonably certain. Likewise, we assume the sun will rise tomorrow because it always has before, but we cannot be 100% certain, although the likelihood is overwhelmingly high. So what we do in these cases is to use faith to bridge the gap between probability and absolute certainty. We can be confident that the sun will rise tomorrow and plan our lives as if it will.

Science uses inductive reasoning in developing hypotheses to explain its observations and testing these hypotheses. In a typical experiment, random samples of an experimental group which undergoes a procedure and a control group which doesn't undergo the procedure are selected. The results between both groups are compared and statistical analysis is applied to determine whether any differences between each group are significant. If they are statistically significant then one can be reasonably, but not 100% certain that the results were due to the procedure and not to random chance.

There are other forms of inductive reasoning, such as the use of analogy and causality. Space does not permit a detailed discussion of them in this article, but I will say that these are used in developing arguments for the existence of God, namely the cosmological arguments and the arguments from design.

The point I want to make is that we are dealing with probability rather than certainty with inductive reasoning, and since we use inductive reasoning for
inquiry into philosophy and spirituality, we cannot be absolutely certain of the conclusions that we infer. The same goes for science. But just as scientific knowledge is in a state of change and growth, so can our knowledge of philosophy and spirituality. From this, it follows that we should be open-minded and flexible, with a willingness to change our beliefs as necessary in context with new information and knowledge. And so, think of it as a process of growth and evolution, as we continually strive for greater knowledge and understanding.

From the pantheistic perspective, we use inductive reasoning to learn more about all aspects of God; through the use of science to study nature, and through the use of philosophical inquiry to study the spiritual aspects of God. This brings us to the next important point.

Science and inquiry through reasoning is based on sensory experience, which sets limits on what it is that can be measured or experienced. Through different
arguments we can infer that there is a good probability that God exists and we can use faith to bridge the gap between probability and certainty. That's as far as sensory experience can take us, but there is one other means of acquiring knowledge, intuition.

Intuitive knowledge is that which one acquires spontaneously, like receiving an insight or an inspiration. When you know something intuitively, you just know it in your heart, without any evidence for it, as opposed to knowing something in your head based on evidence from the use of reason. Some scientific discoveries began as intuitive insights which were later tested and verified experimentally. Thus, intuitive knowledge can sometimes be verified with empirical evidence. And so, here's an example of how
the use of both intuition and reason can complement one another. However, to the person who knows something intuitively, no evidence is required for him or her to believe it. Faith is what enables him or her to do so.

Some theologians believe that faith is a means of acquiring knowledge about God, but I beg to differ. Knowledge of God can come from intuition, and one has faith that this knowledge is true. Now we can see that while faith, itself, is not a means of acquiring knowledge, it is an attitude whereby you accept that something is true without having to prove it. I am making a distinction here, that intuition is not the same as faith.

I want to return to the point that intuitive knowledge and reason can both be used in a complementary fashion. This way, you can develop beliefs that are based on reason, with the use of faith to bridge the gaps between probability and certainty. We can use intuition where reason cannot be applied, but still use reason as much as possible. Intuitive knowledge can be acquired mainly through meditation and altered states of consciousness, which brings me to my final point.

Recognizing the limitations of sensory experience, we must also turn to extrasensory experience to extend our perspective and awareness. This way, we can acquire new knowledge that is inaccessible to ordinary sensory experience, and reason can also be applied here to a certain extent. Extrasensory experience refers to mystical states during meditation or the psychic experiences of paranormal phenomena, which provide additional information that can be analyzed in context with what we know about the world from sensory experience. Reason can be used in making this analysis, from which we derive an even broader view of the world than is possible through only the use of sensory experience. Extrasensory experience provides us with evidence and intuitive knowledge of a spiritual realm and an organizing and guiding principle behind all of existence, call it God if you will. Reason can be used to tie this in with what we observe in the physical world and develop a broader-based worldview that provides an explanation of the purpose and meaning of life.

Email Address: Spiritpan@aol.com

`Belief, Reason, And Faith`

`by Spiritpan`