Apologetics 1Faith & Reason

Science & Religion

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References Scriptural references taken from the following and their

respective copyrights retained: NIV: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984

by International Bible Society® NASB: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright ©

1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. ESV: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a

publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible® Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman

Bible Publishers. NLT: Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House

Foundation.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Faith v. ReasonScience v. Religion

Class Discussion

• What is Faith? • Why is there tension between Faith and

Reason; Science and Religion?• To what degree have you been intellectually

engaged with your faith?

“Some suggest we cannot find facts to support our faith, nor is it preferable to try. This is silly. We're enjoined to have faith in part because we have evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.”

“Biblical faith isn't believing against the evidence. Instead, faith is a kind of knowing that results in action.”

“Friends, Christianity is not denying reality. Biblical Christians don't deny reality, they discover reality. And once they've discovered it, they act on what they've learned.”

“The opposite of faith is not fact, but unbelief. The opposite of knowledge is ignorance. Neither is a virtue in Christianity.”

- Greg Koukl

What is faith?

1. A decision to believe something independent of reason (Reason and Faith have no relationship).

2. A decision to believe while ignoring the lack of evidence (Blind belief).

3. A decision to believe in spite of the evidence to the contrary (Belief in opposition to evidence).

4. A decision to believe because we have a reason to believe (Faith is based on reason).

Definitions

• Science• Religion • Theology• Reason• Faith

“The mind, not the Bible, is the very first line of defense God has given us against error.” … “In order to understand the Bible accurately, our mental faculties must be intact and we must use them as God intended.” … “What is the tool we use in our observations of the world that helps us separate fact from Fiction? That tool is reason, the ability to use our minds to sort through observations and draw accurate conclusions about reality. Rationality is one of the tools God has given us to acquire knowledge.”

- G. Koukl, Tactics pg. 32

God’ wants us to reason

• Christianity has a long history of Faith and Reason.

• Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive throughout Church History.

• “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD” Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

Faith and Reason

• Reason is the handmaiden of Faith.• ancilla: Latin for “handmaiden”.• Compare the English derivative ancillary.

recta ratio, recta fides

• Credo ut intellegam (“I believe so that I may understand”) and

• Intellego ut credam (“I understand so that I may believe.”)

• recta ratio and recta fides • right reason and right faith

Augustine of Hippo

“You say that truth is to be grasped more by faith than by reason ... Heaven forbid that God should hate in us that by which he made us superior to the animals! Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not believe if we did not have rational souls.”

THE “GALILEO AFFAIR”

Galileo Galilei

Heliocentrism

Pope Urban VIII

Church v. Galileo

• First Trial (1616)– Galileo’s evidence for the heliocentric model was

determined to be scientifically wrong. – Bellarmino determined that Galileo’s telescopic

proof (the phases of Jupiter’s moons and Venus) was inconclusive and his tidal proof (Galileo’s assertion that the tides are caused by the motion of the Earth around the sun) was flat out wrong.

– The result was a special injunction to Galileo not to ``hold, teach, or defend'' the theory.

Church v. Galileo

• Galileo wanted to pursue his theory. – He went to Pope Urban VIII later asking for

permission to write on heliocentrism.– Galileo misrepresented the agreement from the

first trial as a warning when he asked Pope Urban VIII for permission to write on the subject.

Church v. Galileo

• Galileo received permission from the Pope.– Galileo was granted permission from the Pope so

long as he included the counter points. – He did included counter points, however he

ridiculed the counter points.• His work is written as a dialogue between two people,

one who is very foolish and the other who is intellectual.

– This was like a slap in the face to the one person who granted him permission.

Church v. Galileo

• The Pope’s Credibility– Galileo was taking sides with people who were

politically opposed to Pope Urban VIII.– The Pope was furious with Galileo, feeling betrayed.– The book which Galileo had produced was very

different from the one he had expected and approved.

– The Pope was concerned for his own credibility, since his earlier friendship with Galileo was well known.

Church v. Galileo

• Galileo’s Second Trial (1632)– His second trial was not about heliocentrism it was

about violating the terms of his 1616 agreement.– However, the Inquisition did not press the most

serious charge, that of violating the special injunction.– Galileo was required to ``abjure, curse, and detest

[these] errors and heresies.”– His book was banned and he was sentenced to

imprisonment for life, which was commuted to house arrest.

THE “GALILEO AFFAIR”

Galileo GalileiHeliocentrism

Pope Urban VIII

The long and the short of it is Galileo did not have definitive scientific proof and some of his proof was scientifically wrong. His personality was abrasive. He lied about the settlement of his first trial. He made the Pope look like a fool. This issue was not the Bible verses science or religion verse science.

Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) formed his views as a teacher of monks who wished to understand logically what they believed by faith.

Anselm's most famous demonstration of a Christian truth is his "ontological argument" for God's existence, which holds that God is "that than which a greater cannot be thought.”

- Professor Thomas Williams

Anselm of Canterbury

“Lord I am not trying to make my way to your height, for my understanding is no way equal to that, but I do desire to understand a little of your truth which my heart already believes and loves. I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand; and what is more, I believe that unless I do believe I shall not understand. I seek to understand so that I can lead others to understand.”

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) used the works of Aristotle as his primary philosophical inspiration, developing arguments for the existence of God as well as an account of the powers and limits of human reason in knowing God. After Aquinas's death, some of his views were officially proscribed by the Condemnation of 1277. - Professor Thomas Williams

He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of Thomism.

His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.- Wikipedia

Thomas Aquinas

• By reason alone we can know of God.– In fact we can know there is one and only one God.– No need for special revelation.

• By Faith we can know Christian doctrine.– We can learn of Divinity of Jesus, Trinity, Redemption etc…– Through special revelation, (Bible and Tradition).

• All truth is harmonious.– If our Faith and Reason are correct.– There will be no conflict between what faith tells us and

what reason tells us.

Professor Thomas Williams, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame

Christian Mind in American Christianity

The Loss of the Christian Mind in American Christianity

• Historical Overview– The emergence of anti-intellectualism • Focus on getting someone to believe with catchy sales

pitches not intellectually careful and doctrinally precise sermons

– Evangelical withdrawal• The Church started to focus on feelings and emotions • Critical attacks on religious thought were unchallenged

Puritans

• In the 1600’s the Puritans were highly educated with a 89-95% literacy rate.

• Children learned how to read and write by age 6.• They studies art, science, philosophy and other fields. • "Ignorance is not the mother of devotion but of

heresy." Puritan, Cotton Mather.

Jonathan Edwards (1707-1758)

• Edwards is widely acknowledged to be: – America's most important

and original philosophical theologian

– and one of America's greatest intellectuals

Dawn of anti-intellectualism

• In the 1800’s there was a shift in the Church. – Focus toward meeting felt needs.– Focus was placed on getting people ‘in’.

• Grown out of the First Awakening.– George Whitefield’s emotionally directed sermons.

• Full blown mid 1800’s.– The Second Great Awakening (1800-1820).– Revivals of Charles Finney (1824-1837).– Layman’s Prayer Revival (1856-1858).

Legacy of the 1800’s revivals“But their overall effect was to overemphasize immediate personal conversion to Christ instead of a studied period of reflection and conviction; emotional, simple, popular preaching instead of intellectually careful and doctrinally precise sermons; and personal feelings and relationship to Christ instead of a deep grasp of the nature of Christian teachings and ideas.”

J. P. Moreland, Love God With All Your Mind, pg 23

“Anti-intellectualism was a feature of American Revivalism.” George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 1980 pg. 212

Impact

• Intellectually shallow, theologically illiterate form of Christianity.

• Believers grew suspicious of intellectual issues altogether.• Birth of Mormonism (1830).• Birth of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1884).• Philosophies critical of religious thought, especially from

Europe (Immanuel Kant & David Hume) went unanswered.

• Darwinian Evolution made the world safe for Atheists.• Growth of scientism.

Scientism: A view that exalts the status of science and scientific inquiry (of course, in the modern, current, Western sense of the word) to an absolutely predominant position, capable of solving, explaining, and/or passing judgment on everything. In some cases, it is equivalent to science as religion.

Professor Lawrence M. Principe

Attacks

• Once the Church retreated from academia the Church became a target of academics.– John William Draper (1811−1882)– Andrew Dickson White

Anti-intellectualism's impact in the Church

1. A misunderstanding of faith's relationship to reason.

2. The separation of the secular and the sacred.3. Weakened world missions.4. Anti-intellectualism has spawned an irrelevant

gospel.5. A loss of boldness in confronting the idea

structures in our culture with effective Christian witness.

Other Terms

• Fideism (blind faith over reason) – An approach to religion that emphasizes faith at the

expense of reason and, in its stronger expressions, holds that no part of the body of faith can be subjected to rational inspection or analysis; an inherently anti-theological position. - Lawrence M. Principe

• Biblicism (reliance on biblical texts alone) – A theological position holding that the Bible is the sole

source of authority for Christianity. Accepted in varying degrees by Protestants; rejected by Catholics and Orthodox. - Lawrence M. Principe

In the World

• The Church was: – Marginalization– Trivialization– Isolation from the public arena

• Church no longer has a voice:– The reinterpretation of what the separation of

Church and State meant:• From protecting the Church from the influence of the

state. • To protecting the state from the influence of the Church.

Legacy of the 1800’s revivals

"I cannot overemphasize the fact that this modern (anti-intellectualism) understanding of Christianity is neither biblical nor consistent with the bulk of church history.“

- J. P. Moreland, Love God With All Your Mind, pg 23 & 25

Reclaiming Faith and Reason

“It is important to see that apologetics is not an activity reserved for philosophers who also happen to be religious believers. Much that passes as philosophy of religion is really apologetics as practiced by individuals who reject tenets of religious belief. I do not say this to be critical of philosophers of religion who also happen to be atheists. My point is that philosophers who reject the Christian religion do not suddenly become, by virtue of this fact alone, more objective or rational or open minded than philosophers who are Christians or Jews.”

Ronald Nash, Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith, pg 14

“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind… Despite dynamic success at a popular level, modern American evangelicals have failed notably in sustaining serious intellectual life. They have nourished millions of believers in the simple verities of the gospel but have largely abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture… The historical situation is…curious. Modern evangelicals are spiritual descendants of leaders and movements distinguished by probing, creative, faithful attention to the mind.”

- Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

Resistance and Suspicion

• “In too many churches, a questioning mind can be a plague to its owner. The thinking woman or man seldom gets much support today – and more often than not meets with resistance and suspicion.”

• “According to the Bible, developing a Christian mind is part of the very essence of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.”

• “[God] does not love intellectuals more than anyone else. But it needs to be said in the same breath that ignorance in not a Christian virtue if those virtues mirror the perfection of God’s own character.”

J. P. Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind

Faith and Reason

• Faith is a trust response to what we believe or know.

• Reason is our process for evaluation of truth claims.– “Reason is relative to truth; it is a way of knowing

truth: understanding it, discovering it or proving it.” - Kreeft and Tacelli

• Truth is reality. – A truth cannot contradict another truth.

“In their uncompromising determination to proclaim truth, Christians must avoid the intellectual flabbiness of the larger society. They must rally against the prevailing distrust of reason and the exaltation of the irrational. Emotion, self-indulgence and irrationalities have always been the enemies of the gospel, and the apostles warned their followers against them.”

- Herbert Schlossberg

Empty-self traits

1. Inordinately individualistic2. Infantile3. Narcissistic4. Passive5. Sensate6. Lost the art of developing an interior life7. Hurried and busy

Countering the empty-self

1. Admit the problem2. Choose to be different3. Change your routine4. Develop patience and endurance5. Develop a good vocabulary6. Set some intellectual goals

Don’t be so prideful as to think you know it all and that you are intellectual enough. On the other hand do play the inferiority card and develop a sense of insecurity about your mental abilities. Neither inferiority nor pride will do you any good in developing a good Christian mind.

J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with all Your Mind pages 88-96

Homework

• Select a logical fallacy, learn about it, and prepare an explanation of that fallacy to share with the class.

• To find information about fallacies check: http://www.logicalfallacies.info/

Quoted Resources

• Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J. P. Moreland

• Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Professor Thomas Williams

• Science and Religion, Professor Lawrence M. Principe