Full marks essay on whether 'faith is sufficient reason for itself'. Part of the Knowledge of God's existence topic.
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Knowledge of God\\\\\\\'s existence (OCR)
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OCR
An A* essay marked by my teacher on whether faith is enough justification for knowledge about God. Received 40 out of 40. Discusses key elements such as fideism, empirical evidence, the reliability of reason. Includes scholars like Kierkegaard and Aquinas. A helpful revision tool for a tricky topic...
‘Faith is sufficient reason for itself’. Discuss
Faith, as defined by Aquinas, is a commitment to something which cannot be tested or
empirically verified. Scholars like Alvin Plantinga have argued that religious faith is enough
justification for itself, a view which Karl Barth would support given the apparent unreliability
of human reason. Yet whilst it may be appealing to say that faith is self-authenticating,
allowing the believer to claim knowledge of God without proof, it is evident that religious
faith cannot stand on its own because in a world reliant upon empirical evidence and
rational debate, this view would commit fideism. Faith is not sufficient reason for itself for it
must therefore be propositional- dependent on rational argument or evidence, as Aquinas’s
5 ways for God shows.
To begin with however, reformed epistemologist Alvin Plantinga argues that faith in God is
“properly basic” for we make assumptions based on experience all the time and religion
should be treated no differently. Plantinga points to the example of the Problem of Other
Minds- we cannot empirically verify that others have a mind, yet we are happy to have faith
that they do. Similarly, faith is sufficient reason for itself- a proper justification for
knowledge with Plantinga dismissing his critics as atheological objectors. His argument may
seem initially compelling, however it is arguably problematic to liken religious faith to other
faith-based assumptions. We have all experienced people talking, reasoning and debating
which seems to be tacit proof that they have minds. The Problem of Other Minds is
therefore perhaps not truly a problem. In comparison, not everyone has experienced faith in
God- how can it therefore be “basic”? Michael Martin in fact points out that many people
experience Godlessness in the world. Just as people have faith in God people have disbelief
in God- it then stands to reason that faith itself cannot stand on its own for it is not a
universal and self-authenticating experience. We must subject religious faith to rational
argument as evidentialists like Hume argue : “a wise man proportions his belief to the
evidence”. In separating faith from reason we commit the sin of fideism, and as Dawkins
points out, allow nonsensical faiths such as in the tooth fairy. With it being too reductionist
to say that religious faith is ‘properly basic’ we must therefore subject faith to evidence.
This is something Aquinas attempts to do in his “Summa Theologica”. Neo-scholastics after
the Enlightenment argued that Aquinas’s 5 ways to God were rational proof for religious
faith. His teleological and cosmological arguments certainly provide a clear route to
theology based on reasoned discussion and induction rather than irrational faith or
supernatural miracles. Karl Barth would of course deride Aquinas’s use of reason in the first
place. For Barth, the horrors of Nazism are proof that the Fall has completely eroded human
ability to reason. Our Total Depravity in the Post-Lapsarian state means we should not be
subjecting faith to natural theology or evidence because we could end up
anthropomorphising God. Barth would ask us to have total faith in our saviour Christ instead
of looking for proof of God. His position is however, exclusivist and fideist. To argue that
faith should only come from revelation and not empirical discussion is to ignore the fact that
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