How Legitimate Is Faith for Knowledge Claims - Essay Example

Faith and Knowledge "Some people say that religious beliefs can be neither justified nor refuted by reason. However, while sometimes this claim is used as a reason for rejecting religious beliefs, at other times it is used to conclude that these beliefs are established by faith. To what extent is faith a legitimate basis for knowledge claims, in religion and different Areas of Knowledge" Abstract Faith and reason go hand in hand as valid sources of knowledge. We ought to keep them together at all times. Studying the works of C. S. Peirce, Thomas Aquinas, Kurt Gdel, and many others, we can conclude that there is diversity in their approaches, but at the end there is a way to understand from their different insights that faith is a legitimate source of knowledge. Deduction, induction, and abduction in relation to reason in the works of Charles Sanders Peirce are also valid in relation to faith. Gdel's Incompleteness Theorems and Ontological Proof of the Existence of God are also valid when it comes to understand the limitations and shortcomings of both reason and faith. At the end of the road we find the unconditional love of God, and this knowledge springs out of the inner being of faith. Faith and Knowledge The most important point that we ought to keep in mind is the fact that faith and reason are two sides of the same coin. In the same way in which reason is a source of knowledge, faith has also a gnoseological component in the very core of its essence. In the next passage we can assume that Dr. Chong Ho Yu (1994) -when referring to Peirce's concepts- was speaking about faith instead of reason, and the resulting assertions would be completely valid in the realm of faith. Let's see: "The philosophical notions introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) are helpful for researchers in understanding the nature of knowledge and reality. In Peircean logical system, the logic of abduction and deduction contribute to our conceptual understanding of a phenomenon, while the logic of induction adds quantitative details to our conceptual knowledge. Although Peirce justified the validity of induction as a self-corrective process, he asserted that neither induction nor deduction can help us to unveil the internal structure of meaning. As exploratory data analysis performs the function as a model builder for confirmatory data analysis, abduction plays a role of explorer of viable paths to further inquiry. Thus, the logic of abduction fits well into exploratory data analysis. At the stage of abduction, the goal is to explore the data, find a pattern, and suggest a plausible hypothesis; deduction is to refine the hypothesis based upon other plausible premises; and induction is the empirical substantiation." (Yu, 1994). Deduction, induction, and abduction are three interdependent facets of the same process of reasoning according to the insight of Charles Sanders Peirce. Those three elements give shape to faith too. Abduction is a form of guessing, and when we speak of "blind faith" we are indeed referring to the abductive aspect of faith. When we take a look at the Universe, and out its evident majesty we recognise the existence of God, we are using the deductive aspect of faith. In the same way, when we wake up any morning to go to work once again having faith in the idea that everything will work out right during the next 24-hour period, then we are exercising the inductive aspect of faith. And the process of living full of faith every second of our lives has a gnoseological content that makes us be better knowers in our experience of everyday relying and trusting, growing in faith. It doesn't matter if that faith is religious or secular. Faith is faith without any regards of the labels we put on it. As proof of the fact that faith and reason work together in the realm of knowledge, we can clearly see how faith and reason go hand in hand in the following passages from the Bible. Let's see: "Now faith is an assumption of what is being expected, a conviction concerning matters which are not being observed." (The Concordant Literal New Testament, Hebrews 11:1). "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who receive the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures day by day, to see if these have it thus." (The Concordant Literal New Testament, Acts 17:11). Notice that the people of this last verse were from Berea. So to be "Berean" means to use reason and faith at the same time in order to find any truth. If we take a closer look at Kurt Gdel's Incompleteness Theorems and his ontological proof of the existence of God (Wikipedia, 2005), we will see that, for example, no matter how much we know about a specific topic, our knowledge will always be incomplete. In other words and from a different point of view, we are finite beings. We are fallible. We are incomplete. Nevertheless, we are perfectible when we open our eyes to a universalist cosmovision, envisioning a higher life. That's why we need faith; because there are certain truths that are out of the reach of reason. So faith and reason help us achieve different kinds of knowledge leading us to a clearer vision as we keep searching in our quest for self-actualization, as Abraham Maslow would say. And we find certain relationship between all the preceding assertions and the words of the German philosopher Jnger Habermas (2001) when he stated the following: "Because he is the God of creation and redemption in one, this Creator does not have to work by natural laws like an engineer, or in accordance with the rules of a code like an information scientist. The voice of God that creates life communicates from the outset within a morally sensitive universe. This is why God can "determine" man in the sense that at the same time he makes man capable of freedom and obliges him to be free." In a very interesting student handout by California Polytechnic State University (n. d.) we can read conflicting and opposing arguments related to the nature of faith by Thomas Aquinas, Pascal, Clifford, and William James. Just by reading all these different positions about faith and reason throughout the passage of time we can conclude that this topic is not easy at all, but at the same time when we stop trying to separate reason from faith, we come to the knowledge that indeed reason and faith are two sides of the same coin. Now we arrive to the real topic of this essay in the form of the following question. Let's see: "Some people say that religious beliefs can be neither justified nor refuted by reason. However, while sometimes this claim is used as a reason for rejecting religious beliefs, at other times it is used to conclude that these beliefs are established by faith. To what extent is faith a legitimate basis for knowledge claims, in religion and different Areas of Knowledge" In the first place, reason can justify religious beliefs as we saw in Acts 17:11 when the Bereans analysed the facts in order to be sure of their beliefs. In the second place, faith is a reliable source of knowledge in Religion as well as in secular life. The scientists need a lot of faith when endeavoring themselves in their research. For example, Thomas Alva Edison failed around 10 thousand times in his experiments in order to invent the electric bulb. Isn't it faith in himself and isn't it faith in the fact that God will open a way at the end of the road The most difficult problem arises in the religious realm of faith. There are many different opinions about God. Opinion is not knowledge as Thomas Aquinas (California Polytechnic State University, n. d.) pointed out a lot of centuries ago. So people have many opinions about God that are conflictive and contradictory. But when it comes to the love of God, for example, all of them agree that the love of God is unconditional. In this case, this is not an opinion. It is knowledge of God. God is love as stated succinctly in John 4:8. God's love is unconditional as anybody can learn just by faith alone. It is not a mere opinion; it is a fact. The problem arises when people make assumptions that contradict that truth. God loves everybody. God's love is unconditional. So this is real knowledge. It is not just an opinion that might change over the passage of time. We have a solid and sound knowledge when we grasp this little truth. To sum up, faith and reason are two sides of the same coin, and we can really rely on faith as a source of knowledge in the religious realm or in any other area of knowledge. Word Count: 1480 words. References California Polytechnic State University. "PHIL 342 Handout 16: Faith, Reason and Evidence". (n. d.). Retrieved November 17, 2005, from http://www.calpoly.edu/jlynch/faith.htm The Concordant Literal New Testament. Acts 17:11. (July 15, 2005). In God's Truth For Today. Translation: A. E. Knoch. California: The Concordant Publishing Concern. Retrieve November 16, 2005, from http://www.godstruthfortoday.org/ConcordantVersion/NT/HTML/005Acts.htm The Concordant Literal New Testament. Hebrews 11:1. (July 15. 2005). In God's Truth For Today. Translation: A. E. Knoch. California: The Concordant Publishing Concern. Retrieved November 16, 2005, from http://www.godstruthfortoday.org/ConcordantVersion/NT/HTML/019Hebrews.htm Habermas, J. "Faith and Knowledge". (2001). Speech when receiving the 2001 Peace Price awarded by the German Book Trade. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from http://socialpolicy.ucc.ie/Habermas_Faith_and_knowledge_ev07-4_en.htm Wikipedia. Gdel's Ontological Proof. (October 31, 2005). Retrieved November 16, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdel's_ontological_proof Yu, C. H. "Abduction Deduction Induction Is there a Logic of Exploratory Data Analysis" (April, 1994). Arizona State University. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/alex/pub/Peirce/Logic_of_EDA.html Read More