faith vs. reason

the basic problem of faith and reason in religion comes from the tension between the spiritual realm and the physical realm.

the spiritual realm involves supernatural facts, ecstasy, divine revelation, sacred pronouncements, which are immune from rational critique and evaluation. see that the spiritual realm consistently appears in all cultures. 

i said in class that fighting the spiritual realm with rational arguments is a category mistake.

that doesn't mean that we should avoid rational examination of our beliefs. the key philosophical issue regarding the problem of faith and reason is to work out how the authority of faith and the authority of reason. here are some ways to cut the cake:

fideism: faith is a kind of super-belief that doesn't need physical proof. st. paul has a great definition: "... faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." given this definition, the fideist doesn't need physical evidence.

there are three approaches: 

1. conflict model: faith and reason are incompatible because they claim different things.
2. incompatibilist model: faith and reason are different. reason aims at empirical truth; faith deals with spiritual truths. so, there's no rivalry.
3. compatibilist model: faith and reason have a connection. compatibilism entertains a rational explanation for the existence of god, such as st. anselm's ontological argument, or thomas aquinas's prime mover, etc.