It has often been said that faith and reason are incompatible ; that faith-religion is for the simple, the superstitious, for those not psychologically strong enough for life’s problems; while reason is for the strong, the intellectual, the self-sufficient. While not pretending to prove God’s existence logically, I feel it is reasonable to hold the Christian faith. It is possible to have reasons other than a trust or confidence founded on authority.
One of the greatest expansions in thought in recent times has been the recognition of “the validity of different conceptual patterns associated with substantially the same phenomena”. Although all patterns are not equally suitable, we accept their validity and choose the patterns to suit the circumstance. To instance the point—what is the answer to the question, What is a peach blossom? It might be described as a pink flower a little larger than a penny; a biochemist might describe it as “a delicately balanced biochemical mechanism requiring potash, phosphates, nitrogen and water in definite proportions”, while the orchardist might describe it as “a fair pledge of a fruitful tree”.
Each of these is substantially correct, but restrictive: the reality involves holding together all of them. Different approaches to a problem need different patterns of description, each of which contributes to the fulness of conception. Even one individual may and generally does have a different framework under different circumstances. The approach of an analyst when determining the chemicals in a plant is quite different from that which he adopts during a leisurely afternoon pruning his roses. Not to change is to miss the fulness and reality of life. In any one field it is possible not to see the place of God or faith, but this does not preclude their existence.
The astronomer who swept the sky with his telescope and exclaimed, “I found no God”, and the biologist who looking up from his microscope said, “I have examined the brain and found no traces of love”, are both right; but God and love can exist in the images they saw. It is only on holding together our different conceptual patterns that we experience the fulness of reality.
Faith-religion is this total response of a man to his environment, the response of body, mind, emotions, imagination, human relationships, indeed everything that makes a human being. This response, we note, is neither completely intellectual nor emotional, but a holding together rather than a blending of these, together with all the pictures we build of our environment. The impressions gained from all our approaches are held together in a “stereoscopic fashion” to produce the full picture of life and the world; in this composite we find faith and God.
The process of gaining the complete vision always involves an “act of reflection” (Coulson), and many do not find faith in their view of the world because the act of reflection is missing. It is important to note that this is not just an abstract seeking to gain oneness with the Infinite, as in many religions, but is based upon experience in our environment; it does not reject the realities or scientific concepts of the world, but it is precisely because such a beginning exists and can be perceived and placed alongside other “pictures” that we come to faith and the reality of God.
In Psalm 8. 3 such an act of reflection is illustrated. The Psalmist’s thoughts on man, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?”, follow upon observations of the realities of life about him, and rise from the act of reflection.
Jean Henri Fabre, the renowned French entomologist, after studying cross-pollination of flowers by insects is recorded as expressing himself as follows: “Before these mysteries of life, reason bows and abandons itself to the adoration of the Author of these mysteries”. Again we note the pattern of observation and reflection leading to faith and God.
Jesus’ words as recorded in Luke 12. 27 involve the same process. Jesus draws on a view of the world and, calling for an act of reflection, concludes with the well known verses on faith. We might note here that the real consequence of such reflection had been proposed in verse 15, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”.
In none of these examples has our picture of the world been discarded, but, because of them, man may come to faith and God.
By reason we arrive at the point of reflection. Ideas just appear; our feeling of comfort and acceptance; our sense of guarantee”, our faith just seems to come, as one author has it, “like half-crowns put into my pocket while I slept”.
Jesus reassures us that this is what we should expect. In John 3, in answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How does God’s spirit work?” Jesus said in effect, “You see and hear the wind, you see it’s effect, you see the debris in the wake of a storm and you accept this as evidence of the existence of wind, without being able to know where it comes from and to where it goes. God’s spirit is similar; you can see, if you wish, its effect on men and on the world, and have faith, without knowing logically all about it”. You do this because of the picture of the real world, but following an act of reflection.
So, today, christian experience is just as real and observable as any other phenomenon, and as all other experiences it can only be felt by the individual personally, We have, as it were, our experiences of the world, our record of the christian experiences of others, and our act of reflection then produces or re-affirms our faith.
We must admit that faith is not completely or only from reason, but it is not opposite or antagonistic to it—indeed it is based on reason.
Who, after reading Luke 21. 5-6 as spoken before the destruction of Jerusalem, and then reading of the historical event, could include this in his framework and conceptual pattern of the world and not, after reflection, be re-assured of God’s existence? Who, after reading the concluding verses of Deuteronomy 28 and then Ezekiel 37. 21-22, could look at the historical realities of the last 50 years without feeling the Divine presence in world events? Only those who neglect to reflect! Only those who neglect the realities of the world and refuse to accept the validity of a combined conceptual framework; only those who are willing to disregard part of man’s real and observable experience!
Our true and fullest participation in this world is only possible when faith becomes a part of our life, because then are we using the greatest combination of images of our surroundings. “The real life, the more complete life, the fullest life, on any definition, is the life of faith.”
The experience is there for everyone—a phenomenon as real as any other, yet unknown till felt by each one individually. “0 taste and see that the Lord is good”, says the Psalmist, and Peter invites the same exposure to evidence. “Faith is no empty web of words, but a real and vital experience, without which the true blessings of God never come to a man or woman.”
Faith is reasonable; only look at the world—at the teaching of the Bible—and reflect; for this is the way to the Kingdom of God.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay