It's Faith and Reason

I have The Quotations Page "Quotes of the Day" gadget on my Google Homepage. As a rule, it's fun to see what shows up. There's even the occasional witticism from G. K. Chesterton.

And, there's the predictable stuff from current serious thinkers. Like today's quote:

"Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn't be religious people."
- Doris Egan

The Wikipedia article on Doris Egan starts: "Doris Egan (1955-) is an American screenwriter, producer, and writer...." She's a few years younger than I am, but we're nearly contemporaries.

Which is why I think I may know what she means.

Faith, Reason, and Cherished American Assumptions

Over the decades, I've encountered a fair number of very 'religious' folks who reinforce the notion that reasonable people can't be religious: and vice versa. Some of them even believe it, themselves.

Then there are the well-read 'Bible Christians' who come up with such phrases as "a good Christian: like David." The David, king of Israel, had run-ins with King Saul, killed Goliath: that David. The one who lived and died centuries before Jesus of Nazareth was born.

I'm not making up that assertion that 'King David was a Christian,' by the way. I rather wish I was. It was on a pre-recorded radio program: so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a slip of the tongue.

More important than the occasional chronologically-challenged preacher, I think, is the deep-rooted cultural assumption, so dear to so many Americans, that faith and reason, religion and science are not only polar opposites: but are in conflict.

I'm pretty sure that the 'faith vs. reason' notion is endemic to most if not all Western cultures, too.

Faith, Reason, and Expectations

I don't expect to change that sort of belief - any more than I'd expect to alter the assumptions of that 'David was a Christian' fellow.

I'll just say that I converted to Catholicism in part because anything I believe has to make sense. I've written about this before.

Related posts:

• "Science vs. Relgion: the Same Tired Old Line"
  (June 5, 2010)
• "Reason, Faith and 'What Folks Know, that Just Ain't So' "
  (June 4, 2010)
• "Assumptions About Religion, and American Rules of Etiquette"
  (April 14, 2010)
• " 'If you must see ghosts ...' Materialism, Being Spiritual, and Uncle Deadly"
  (December 18, 2009)
• "Why Did I Convert to Catholicism?"
  (November 24, 2009)
• "Copernicus, Galileo, Science and a Reality Check"
  (October 26, 2009)
• "I'm Not Awed by Authority, I Don't Conform Easily: So I Became a Catholic?!"
  (September 19, 2009)
• "Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
  (March 20, 2009)