Faith, Experience & Reason in the Secular & Religious Realms – a Unity & Symmetry

Faith today is often denigrated as weakness, and yet it is the greatest principle of power. Hebrews 11 tells us that “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God," and that many other great works in the bible were done by faith. Faith is also seldom appreciated as a practical, everyday principle in many fields outside religion. And for too many, their faith has been displaced completely from religion and onto tenets of secularism. Many demonstrate great faith in materialism, environmentalism, atheism, socialism, narcissism, etc.

God created man in His image – physically, rationally and spiritually. Each less than perfect, and yet clearly with the potential to become such – “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) This mortal existence is our opportunity to grow in each of these areas – resurrection to immortality is a free gift to all, but intellectually and spiritually much depends on our agency and choices, and taking advantage of what God & Christ offer us. And if faith is as important a quality as revelation would have us believe, this mortality is our opportunity to develop and live by it, and in this way also to become more like our Father in Heaven.

Science and reason can take us so far in the material and mental realms. Religion and faith can take us so far in the spiritual realm. The soul of man is comprised of a physical body and a spirit, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. So it is with science/reason and religion. If both natural and spiritual law were authored and created perfectly by the same being, and if He is a God of order (The more we learn and deeper we probe the universe at the micro and macro levels, the more complexity and order we seem to find), they must ultimately agree when both are understood fully. “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3: 25)

Some scientists seek a "grand unified theory" to consistently explain all physical laws. Similarly, some in religion seek a unified religious “theory” – “Till we all come in the unity of the faith ...” Eph. 4: 13. One might go beyond both, to a “supreme unified theory” that could explain both the physical and spiritual aspects of the universe in a consistent manner. Some secularists claim, far too narrow-mindedly and prematurely, to know that such consistency is impossible. They in essence claim the same omniscience in themselves that they deny to God.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image -- 10,000 galaxies in a spot of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length, or looking through an 8 foot soda straw.  Which means at least 200 billion galaxies in the visible universe -- within Hubble's grasp.  Who knows how many beyond.  And within a typical galaxy are some 100 billion stars.  Typical stars have multiple planets, and many of those discovered so far are earth-sized, and the right distance from their star to harbor life.

In this life we will undoubtedly not fully have all the answers in either the physical or religious realm. We do not abandon Newton’s or Einstein’s theories just because they each only take us so far, or because parts have not been proven (e.g., gravity waves). [Update as of 2017 -- 8 years after writing this, gravity waves were first barely detected from distant merging black holes].  Nor do we abandon current fundamental particle theory just because we don’t understand what some 96% of the universe is made of (“dark matter & dark energy”). So the religious do not abandon their principles and faith just because they don’t yet have all the answers, or 100% certainty. Man grows bit by bit, but has been given ways to discern truth at waypoints along the right trajectory.

Elements of both science and religion are needed and frequently used in both realms. Scientists & engineers apply faith when they act on hypotheses and principles they do not have 100% knowledge are completely infallible and universally valid. They have limited experimental or experiential evidence – often not first-hand, or through indirect measurement. And all of us demonstrate faith when performing any simple everyday action based on assurance that the laws of nature and reason will hold. The religious grapple with their faith in rational terms and act based on their limited experiential evidence – often first-hand, except for those who settle for blind faith.

Few have actual first-hand knowledge of the most hard-to-come-by aspects of either realm. In science & engineering, those who do are called research/experimental scientists/engineers, and in religion they are called prophets. The rest of us take their documented experience on faith, and practice our science, engineering and religion by building on those fundamental tenets, combining them with our own more limited personal experience at a more superficial level.

Matters involving religion will almost by definition (and probably design) always be at least partially matters of faith, and not completely empirically, logically or scripturally provable. That is not to say that they are necessarily invalid or illogical, or that there are not reasonable experiences, rationales or scripture to support them.

Assuming God's existence, His rationality is a given. Certainly a deity who created this complex universe and the laws that govern it, has a mentality and rationality surpassing our own (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8). But as a patient and loving Father, He is willing and able to condescend, communicate and reason at our level with us, His creations, as He has in the bible, and since. And even to send His Son to come and live with us, to show us how it should be done, and make possible our return to Him.

Science does not have all the answers, but certainly Deity – the Creator -- would. We make great efforts (e.g., the SETI project & Kepler space telescope) to locate and communicate with greater intelligence in the universe. The truth is, greater (omniscient) intelligence has already long been communicating with us, and even revealed some secular truths, in addition to all the spiritual ones He knows we need. It is up to us to recognize these revealed truths for what they are by acquiring and exercising faith.