Post #89 "Truth Through Faith?"

What do we know? How do we know? Where do we seek Knowledge? Do we seek the knowledge of Reality or do we seek the knowledge of non-reality? There seem to be common ways of knowing; through the senses, through faith, or through reason. Another form, that of a primal, external, awareness has been suggested in this writing. As questions arising from the evaluation of faith and reason begin to formulate and unfold, there will emerge a need for a new direction, for an untraveled path. As history continues to unfold, it will become apparent that new questions will have to be asked...that new directions will have to be pursued. It will become apparent that the usual answers to the usual questions are no longer satisfactory. It will become apparent that the usual answers have become not only dangerous to follow but often deadly. The past has trusted in the knowledge of faith, especially the faith of religious belief. History has shown over and over again the betrayal of belief in that which is essential to our being. History has shown over and over again the betrayal of the knowledge of the faith of religion. The betrayal of faith has put hideous marks on our hearts and on our history. Such betrayal leads to doubt and doubt leads to mistrust and the resultant emptiness. When such faith has been betrayed, where does one go? Where do we find new answers that can be trusted? What can one do and where can one go when betrayed by that in which they believed?

Let's take a look at faith. Dating back to the 16th century, the dualism between mind and body or faith and reason, is a controversy of enormous proportions. At first the predominant church, with its long standing faith tradition condemned the ideas emerging from the new reason based philosophy of Rene Descartes and his followers in the Age of Enlightenment. Now, in our present times, it has become more common for the 'other side' that is the side of reason, or the scientific approach, to voice impatience with, and opposition to the traditional views of faith based knowledge. The debate continues to the present, running hot and strong, with lively disagreement expressed  over opinions and choices in school curriculum, in publications, within the media, in churches, in the courts, in political systems, and in all ways opinions are expressed, directly and indirectly. Indeed, the very right to question, explore, and develop new ideas and ways of thinking have often been rejected, punished, and banned within the religious/faith tradition. The struggle between faith knowledge and rational knowledge dates way back beyond the 16th century. The struggle traces back beyond the rationalism of Plato. Indeed, the struggle dates back to the confrontation of civilization to the wilderness.

continuing....................