Christian Faith and Reason

Militant atheists and secular progressives think that faith and reason are polar opposites of one another. This is far from the truth. If anything they are complementary of one another.

Below are Bible verses that show reason isn’t a foreign concept in Christianity. The italics are my emphasis.

• But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.* (Jude 1:10)
• And Jesus said to him, "You shall love Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37) (Deut. 6:5)
• And according to Paul's custom, he went in to them and reasoned with them from the Scriptures on three Sabbaths, opening and setting forth that the Messiah must have suffered and to have risen from the dead, and that this is the Messiah, Jesus, whom I preach to you. (Acts 17:2-3)
• If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may perceive and may believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.^ (John 10:37-38)
• Do not quench the Spirit.
  Do not despise prophecies.
  Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)
• Come now and let us reason together, says Lord: Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as the crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
• Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forsake and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. (Proverbs 4:5)

A good book on faith and reason is Dr. Michael Guillen’s book Can a Smart Person Believe in God? (2009). He says yes.

H/T to the book Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith (2017) by J. Warner Wallace.

One final thought. Even militant atheists have to have faith. They fly on airplanes of course. How do they know the plane they are flying on won’t have a malfunction in midflight? Or a bird flies in an engine? Or if the pilot is drunk or overly tired? The answer is they don’t.

*In other words, don’t let your passions overrule your common sense.

^Actions speak louder than words. Jesus doesn’t exclude Himself from this proverb.