In the First Commandment, we hear the words, “You shall not have other gods besides me”. Belief in God has to come first because from our belief in God flows everything else. However, in order to truly believe in God and put Him first - we have to exercise faith and reason. As Christians, one must not enact one, without the other.
Faith is considered a supernatural gift from God that enables a person to know the truths that human reason can’t explain.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us …
It is so powerful that even faith the size of a mustard seed can “move mountains” Mt 17:20- 21. This virtue allows the intellect to see the truth in Divine Revelation. Without the grace of faith, we would not be able to see God reveal Himself in our everyday lives.
Reason, on the other hand, is the ability to think, understand, and form judgments through logical reasoning. When God created us, He gave us both intellect and will. This is what sets us apart from all other physical creations. Intellect is the ability to think and will is the ability to choose. Reason is the part of our intellect that enables us to form judgments about the world around us. This ability plays a critical role in recognizing the existence of God through logical inquiry and careful examination of evidence taken from nature and through life experience.
Modern culture has taken a distrust of faith and reason to the extreme. By doing so, society is entrenched in ideals that seek answers only through empirical sciences or propaganda. This outlook is tragically flawed because there are many facets of life that we experience, but which cannot be understood without God’s virtues. Modern society is thus, inevitably, filled with skepticism, doubt, and This column focuses on matters of morality because, as Christians, we recognize that living a moral life does matter. However, we never forget that we are “saved by grace” (Eph 5:8) in Jesus Christ. We are not saved because we are moral. Rather we are moral because we desire to imitate Christ in his poverty, chastity, and obedience; always knowing that God’s “mercy endures forever” (Ps 136). Anxiety - seeking truth from popular opinion and leaving God out of the equation.
Faith and reason, though different, are compatible and complementary in discerning God’s revelations. St. Thomas Aquinas gave his 5 proofs for the existence of God which are very reasonable, logical points. (See below.) However, there are some divine truths like the Holy Trinity that, in the end, are so beyond our finite minds’ understanding that we must rely on our faith to believe. Because of this, faith and reason do not work against each other but, instead, are both necessary in forming knowledge and understanding. One first receives revelation with an assent of faith and then examines the evidence with the logical mind. This beautiful synchrony is a gift so that we can love Him above all else and honor the first commandment.
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” J. P. II, Fides et Ratio
St. Thomas Aquinas' 5 Proofs for the Existence of God
- The Unmoved Mover: Everything in movement has been moved by another. Something must possess movement on its own.
- Efficient Cause: One can’t cause their own existence. It has to be caused by something else
- Contingency & Necessity: Because there is existence there must be a necessary being on which the existence of things is contingent, or dependent on.
- Degrees of Perfection: If degrees of perfection exists, there must be one Being who is all perfect.
- Design: Every intelligent design has an intelligent designer, therefore there must be an intelligent creator of the universe.