The Necessity Of Reason (Part 2)

In the first post with this title [1] I explained why no one is justified in believing anything apart from strict rational proof or evidence.  I highlighted verses from the Bible that honor reason and command us to employ it, proving that no one can rely on the Bible as an excuse to belittle or avoid use of the intellect.  This time, I will not establish or defend proofs from logic or Scripture that reason is epistemologically necessary or that we cannot know anything apart from it; instead, I will address the valuable side effects of basing one's life around knowledge and not assumptions or feelings.  In other words, this will not establish the Scriptural and epistemological necessity of reason but the personal necessity of it.

Reason reminds us of truths even when we emotionally experience great confusion or distress.  I, like many Christians (and of course non-Christians), have endured phases of great personal difficulty.  Periods of severe emotional or personal anguish or uncertainty will engulf our lives at various times, and these experiences can devastate us thoroughly, sometimes even for the remainder of our lives.  Knowledge about God or reality obtained through reason may be the sole thing that motivates a depressed or troubled person to maintain their relationship with God.  After all, someone who bases their spiritual life primarily on emotion will panic and doubt if they cease to feel God's presence or peace.  An emotionally-based faith will face a deep crisis when emotions change or fail to adapt to reality, as feelings will inevitably shift or alter themselves.  Only a theology reinforced by reason will help the majority of people spiritually survive trials and questions.  Philosophy does not merely have the ability to demonstrate to someone why Christianity is true; it can rescue a Christian from despair and doubt.  As an example, the legendary "problem of evil" is, at its core, usually nothing more than an emotional dilemma.  When someone confronts or is personally harmed by great evil, he or she may react to it by questioning God's attributes or coming to attack the idea of his existence.  There is a reason why the vast majority of agnostics or atheists cite the problem of evil as their largest objection to the existence of a loving deity.  Many people eventually must acknowledge this seeming dilemma, yet it is almost certain that only those with true philosophical and theological knowledge will emerge with their relationship with God at that time fully intact.

You see, apologetics, philosophy, and epistemology can deliver us from abandoning a true belief that we personally have difficulty accepting or continuing to believe.  In all honesty, as I will eventually explain in the series I started about my past personal life, I would have exited Christianity years ago were it not for the specific intellectual knowledge and reasoning I had studied.  For me and many others, philosophy was inescapably necessary to preserving my interaction with Christianity and my willingness to continue it.  Ultimately, no one can claim to know anything apart from the wonderful enlightenment of reasoning and no one can fully obey the Bible without becoming something that dramatically resembles a philosophical rationalist.  But there are also strong personal reasons to invest heavily in the study and use of reason, logic, philosophy, apologetics, and deep theology.  God likely did not command a moral obligation to embrace rationality for wholly epistemological reasons.  A Christian apologist will eventually comprehend that legitimate knowledge is impossible apart from rationalism and that reason can help someone combat emotional doubts and fears.  There is a rational necessity of reason and also a personal one.


[1].  http://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-necessity-of-reason.html