Rational Faith

"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."

I am new here, and this is my first blog post, so I would like to present a little information about myself.  I am a Xian.  If I have to be more specific than that, I would say that I am a zen Xian.  I am also a scientist, and I would generally classify myself as a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal and supernatural.  You might think that makes me sound like a schizophrenic, but it has been my life's spiritual journey to reconcile what we can know about the physical world with what we can know about God through rational systems of belief and formal reasoning.  I do not think that the two are mutually exclusive, and ultimately, I believe that the two approaches are in complete harmony.  I do not think that God hides Himself in, through, or from His creation.

"For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks)."  --Romans 1:20 (Amplified Bible)

Since I do not believe I have to check my brain at the door to be a Xian, the passage leading off this post resonates with me on a deep level.  I am quite concerned when I hear professed Xians talking nonsense about God and His creation, because I don't want other people believing that you have to check your brain at the door to be a Xian, either.  I believe that faith can be rational.

And lest anyone think that this is just a modern problem of science conflicting with religious nonsense, the passage quoted above was written in the year 401 AD, by St. Augustine, in his treatise, "The Literal Meaning of Genesis."  Irrational beliefs were a problem for rational Xians even then.

I don't want to get too deep too quick, but that's an overview of my approach to faith.  I am certainly willing to answer any questions or consider any comments that anyone might have.