Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson In class we discussed the Greek and Christian view of the role of reason. Plato depended entirely on reason. He believed that reason was the only way to find truth. Christians, however, are free from the chains of reason and can rise above the necessity of it. The Holy Spirit living inside the body, the resurrection of Christ, our very God invisible to the human eye…none of these concepts are rational or reasonable, but by faith we may believe these and more.
The beauty of faith and reason is that though faith can stand alone without reason, faith can also USE reason for its benefit. Until several years ago, one word I never thought to use to describe God is “smart”. But of course, it hit me, he is the smartest, most reasonable being there is. Everything he does is full of purpose and reason. So though he can rise above science and psychology and reason, he also created them so why not use them to his advantage?
One of the best examples I think of when it comes to this idea is the 10 plagues of Egypt. One day I sat down to watch the History Channel, and an episode came on using science to explain the 10 plagues. At first this infuriated me. I thought, “Great! People out to prove that God wasn’t behind the 10 plagues!” But the more I watched, the more I noticed that the creators of the show actually DID believe God was behind the 10 plagues. They simply believed that they had stumbled across some scientific ways in which God might have brought the plagues upon Egypt. They proposed an idea of how God might have USED science-reasonable and rational facts and events- to create miraculous events and to miraculously change Pharaoh’s heart.
I’ve provided a link to the film on Amazon.com…it’s only $17.99 if you’re really interested. Otherwise you can just read the reviews and it explains a little more about it.
Lawton Pybus
2:56 pm, 02.02.11
We also saw in the reading that there are Christian philosophers who weigh more importance on faith and some who weigh more on reason (although we haven’t gotten to them in class yet). As a Christian and former atheist, I know that there are sound logical reasons to hold either position, but I also know that to accept the weight of either conviction one must make a leap of faith. It’s not that one is more logical than the other, but some things transcend reason. It’s a humbling testament to our limitations as human beings.
Katelyn Marlow
6:40 pm, 02.02.11
I strongly agree with your statement that “faith can also USE reason for its benefit.” So many times, as Christians we cower at many of the ideas of science almost as if it is going to take away from the splendor of the faith behind or beliefs, but having some sort of proof backing up what we know as truth is very helpful in trying to convince those who have doubts about the validity of Christianity as a whole. It’s hard for anyone to simply believe something just because someone else said it, and honestly we really wouldn’t want for people to do that anyway. We want others to believe out of their own convictions and using reason to aid in that process is a great way to help guide someone there.
Rebekah Bynum
8:15 pm, 02.02.11
I like the idea of faith using reason to reenforce it. God created us as inquisitive beings and I think that He definitely appreciates the fact that some of us use the reasoning skills that He gave us to help show our faith in Him.
Garrett Beach
8:28 pm, 02.02.11
I really like this. I’ve always wondered why people tend to think that things are explained by science or by God, but not by both. I’ve never seen any reason that things couldn’t have been explained by God doing things in ways that we call science. Many scientists believe that they can trace creation back to a big bang of sorts, but can’t explain why the big bang took place without violating their own rule of conservation of energy. Seems like a pretty good place for God to come into play to me.