Free Essay About The Intersection Between Faith And Reason

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a great novel by Mark Twain is a story from 1800’s which very well depicts the intersection between the faith and the reason. It being one of the first novels using time travel portrays a man who with the clever use of his reasons and knowledge is able to trick the other people and successfully evades from his own execution. He is described as hitting his head and later finding himself in England during the time of the Knights of the Round Table, and falling into rivalry with a superficial wizard Merlin. The lead character is later rewarded with death penalty. The book depicts him to be reasonable enough, to have well memorized the schedule of eclipse and fortunate enough, to have used this knowledge to escape from his execution. The decided day of his execution coincidently falls on the day of eclipse and the narrator uses this opportunity and warns everyone around that if he will be executed the sun will be blotted out. People believe that he has some kind of divine powers and control over the sun’s brightness. The author very well brings out the contrast between reason and faith here. For the lead character issue lies in using his reasons and knowledge whereas for the people the issue revolves around their faith thinking that man possesses some kind of influence over the sun’s brightness and if he gets executed sun will turn dark. The story indicates that where there is reason there is no requirement of faith and where there is blind faith there is no room for any kind of reasons.
Karen Armstrong held that fifteenth and sixteenth century saw a major breakthrough in the field of science and reasoning by a shift in religion. She wasn’t satisfied with the medieval form of religion that existed. These medieval forms included attending church that was reciting hymns in Latin rather than their native language. Hence, an average men wasn’t able to understand a word of hymn being recited. Even the sermons which included listening to teachings in Latin language were too not possible for an average man to grab. A person after having received the teachings for an hour or two, even a part of which he wasn’t able to utilize for his benefit moved to his worldly affairs.
A revolutionary change came in the form of Protestant Reformation. The main agenda of it was holding church services in the native language of its believers. For an instance, at that time even the Bible was rewritten in the native languages of the believers for them to understand it easily which however, earlier wasn’t the case. The transformation clearly depicted that people were fed up of the existing system and were looking for an overhaul in the system of churches. The capacity of people to deal with the complex questions about the physical world was increasing, morals and ethics in their everyday lives were developing better, and they were looking for the better instructions from the Church. Hence, the faith now was taking a taking a shape supported by reasons. These new forms of religion which were blending faith and reason into a hybrid were turning frustrating for the orthodox and the conservatives.
Hans Keung in his book “”Yes to Reality” mentioned about the interaction between faith and reasons. He describes the use of both faith and reasons as an essential requirement for existence. In order for it to be understood an additional layer of subjectivity must be appended with it. He argues about science and describes most exact science today is starting out from the assumption that what we are dealing with are never the world in itself, but always the world as it appears to us. This additional layer appended between actual reality and the individual helps to add subjectivity to our interpretation. The collision between faith and reason revolves around the issue of perception, as people often uses both faith and reason to challenge the same question and the result being that they end up with a successful interpretation either way; the success of such interpretation does not depend on any worldly outcome but it rather depends on how well is the connection between the interpreter and the view to be interpreted. For an instance, a small child may believe that if he prays hard in front of god, his prayers will be heard and his mother who is suffering from a tumor will get healed up. The woman's husband, on the other hand, might also believe in prayer, but simultaneously he will also look into some of the reason-based strategies at fighting the tumor, such as chemotherapy. The physician, on the other hand, is surely to use reason alone to solve the problem of the tumor to the best of his or her ability. All the three people have different perceptions but the outcome for which each one of them is looking is the same, healing of the tumor patient and allowing her to make it to a long and healthy life. All three of these people have a vested interest in seeing the mother fight the tumor. The fact being, that all three of them believe in their own different ways to treat mother and portraying different amalgamations of faith and reasons doesn’t mean that any one of them is wrong. Instead, it shows whether there is a little intersection of faith into reason or a little of reason into faith, both of them are justifiable.