Reason has no comparison, nor any contradiction with Faith. Faith is an emotional quality which cannot be quantified, nor measured in scientific or technological terms
Dr. Jernail S. Anand
If we look back into the history of poetic creation, we come across a feud between intellect and passion. The great twentieth century poet and scholar T.S. Eliot felt that only Donne who was capable of a unified sensibility, which was found dissociated in later poets. The yoking together of heterogeneous ideas with force, gave birth to metaphysical conceits.
Reason is generally associated with scientific temper, according to which, we try to believe anything that justifies itself when tested scientifically. By scientific, we mean if it can be proved in a laboratory. Belief is also the result of our faith when we understand the reason behind something. We know the ceiling of our room will not come down, reason being our knowledge that good cement has been used in constructing it. Thus, reasoning gives rise to belief in certain things.
From Test to Taste
However, what actually stirs the technology-savvy generation is the idea of faith. Faith is an emotional quality [a matter of taste] which cannot be quantified, nor measured in scientific or technological terms. Faith stems directly from intuition and one’s belief into a set patterns of life. Reason bets on questioning, which faith decries, because reason and intellect can give right answers to right questions, whereas faith does not like being questioned. Faith in fact has no questions, only answers. And reason has only questions, upon questions, and no answers, because every hypothesis can be challenged.
Do reason and faith contradict each other?
I have chosen to write on this issue because I think that reason and faith do not contradict each other. Intellect and passion are not adversaries as made out by old timers. Can we consider black as an adversary of white? Can we think in terms or Day or Night? Never. It is always day and night. Black and White. In the same way, reason takes the shape of faith and faith is not unreasonable. If we think intellect is very reasonable, and passions lack logic, we are proceeding on dangerous ground. Because, nothing is more logical than emotions and passions and nothing is more unreasonable than intellect which tries to disturb their flow. We are natural so far as we are close to our passions, our feelings, and our emotions. And as we digress from them, under the pressure of reason and intellect, the first wrong that happens to us is we turn unnatural.
Reason finds itself dwarfed when it has to contend with serious realities of life. On the other hand, faith is the real faculty that man must possess. Faith connects us with the ultimate reality.
Whenever we have to assert some idea, we always say: I think. But when I think does not work, we go on to assert: I feel strongly. The matter is clinched when we say: I have faith in what you say. Can a couple end a feud if they go on reasoning it out? Reason is like proverbial ‘lassi’ [buttermilk], you can go on adding water to it, and will go on increasing. From reason, we can easily graduate to argumentation. Arguments too have no ending. To end the argument, between two nations, per se, we take to ‘diplomacy’ which is a very ‘kind’ word for a ‘harsh’ description: ‘untruth, falsehood, deceit’.
Human mind is an amalgam of both thought and feeling, and a person who can effect a balance of the two remains stable in his behavior. Too much of reason in human conduct causes distrust and distance in human relations. Similarly, too much emphasis on emotions makes a fool of us in public. Reason does not let us give space to others, but our feelings help us to take the extra step, and soothe the harsh atmosphere between two friends.
On the whole, I feel, reason is a very low faculty. How much is human brain? A very small portion of our body. And how much can it assimilate? Very little. So, reasonableness is good, but it does not take us far. Life is too complex an affair. Reason finds itself dwarfed when it has to contend with serious realities of life. On the other hand, faith is the real faculty that man must possess. Faith connects us with the ultimate reality. We have never seen God. And your reason will tell you don’t believe what you cannot prove in the Lab. Don’t forget this world is the lab of the creator and he is here all the time. Only we have to open our eyes.
Read – YOU AND YOUR LORD: LET NO THIRD PERSON STAND BETWEEN THE TWO ULTIMATE LOVERS
We are expected to grow from small time engagement with life to higher regions of creation. There is a God. We have to believe it, in the same way, as we believe we had a great grandfather. We have never seen him. But he was there. That is why we are here. God is the creator of the winds, the waters, the mountains, the birds, these animals, and this vegetation. Everything. If you can’t feel him, if you can’t see him, it is your problem. Just remember that with a limited brain, we cannot comprehend the spreading cosmos. With these two eyes which see not beyond the front wall, how can we hope to see the Great Lord?
Reason has no comparison, nor any contradiction with Faith. We shall do better to remember that God does not do anything that is unreasonable. If we learn the theory of ‘Karma’, the Lord makes sure that man has to suffer for his evil deeds. It has often happened that men have done evil deeds and they were never discovered, nor punished by the worldly courts. But, God does not make such mistakes. If you have committed a wrong, you must come to harm. Is it not highly reasonable?
Read: ANAESTHESIAC ALCHEMY AND THE MODERN CIVILIZATION
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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 167 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honoured him with the award of an Honourable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engineering and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com
Link Bibliography:
https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernal-singh/home
Faith and reason must contradict. If not, the propagation of ideologies must stop. The battle of thoughts is necessary to develop the ideologies.