Is intellect and faith and faith mutually exclusive?

Question

Does are intellectaul knowledge rule out our faith in the Divine, in humanity and in religion.

Answer 1

For a long time I thought that it did, then this happened to me.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 2

No the study of Apologetics is the study of the intellectual proofs of the scripture.
I would be very worried if any Christian did not want to use their brain.

Since the seventeenth century the controversies over Deism, the Enlightenment, humanism, and theories of Feuerbach, Marx, Freud and Darwin, have each in turn spurred both Catholic and Protestant apologists to reply. Changing modes in apologetics, whether or not they are currently fashionable, are important markers in the history of ideas. Among the notable apologists of the early modern era are Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, William Paley, Søren Kierkegaard, and John Henry Newman.

The Catholic G. K. Chesterton, the Anglican C. S. Lewis, the Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery, and the Presbyterian Francis Schaeffer were among the most prolific Christian apologists in the 20th century. Among the most widely read Christian apologists writing in English have been Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel. Another modern apologist is Ravi Zacharias, author of The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha which argues for Christian truth over world religions and other modern movements.

Answer 3

Intellect lead us to faith and faith to reality.
The more you know Creations, your knowledge will lead you to faith in the Divine. Faith in the Divine is the beginning of all wisdom. All what we see are perishable or destroyable. When we say that does it not leave an unwritten line that "all that are unseen are eternal'? Else, there is no meaning in life. Here out limit is invisibility of the unseen things.

Answer 4

Knowledge clarifies faith because once you realize what "god" really does and doesn't do, you can stop blaming him for all the lousy things in life and stop giving him credit for all the good things in life.
Faith only comes when you become personally responsible for your choices.
Faith will move mountains...but bring a shovel!!

Answer 5

I think that there is this wrongful idea of what faith is amoung both christians and nonchristians. For many the very idea of faith for some reason has this stigma of blindness attached to it. So faith as most people see it is a "blind" faith that takes over at some point where reason and logic fails to address reality. This could not be farther from the truth. God does not ask that we believe in something that He has not given us adequate evidence for taking the step of faith.
If you would investigate the world of the many disciplines of science you will find that there is mounting evidence in practically every area for the existence of God as the intelligence behind the design of the universe.
As it turns out it seems as if it actually takes more "blindness" of faith to believe that time plus chance plus natural selection accounts for the world around us than the idea that intelligence is at the core of all that we see. In Romans 1;20 read...."His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made...."

If you would go through the gospel and see every instance that faith is used and in your mind insert the word trust you will get a better idea of what is being communicated.
FAITH IS THE PLACE THAT EVIDENCE LEADS YOU.
An analogy of faith would be like if you and I went canoeing and we had an agreement that you would drive around the lake with a canoe trailer and meet me on the other side while I would paddle across in the canoe. Knowing you as I do (evidence) I put my trust in you and believe that things will turn out as per our agreement (trust) acting upon the real and known ideas at hand (intellectual reasoning and logic), I paddle across the lake and we meet on the otherside. This is acting in faith (trust) and my hope was that which anchored me in my decision to proceed confidently toward the goal of reaching the otherside and things would turn out as expected.
In Hebrews 11:1 it says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
To paraphrase this putting faith in its definition as trust, you could say that our trust is in the reality and expectation of that which our mind is convinced of by the evidence before us will happen.
The bible gives examples and exhorts us to us our minds in the pursuit of faith in God. One of my favorites is Ecclesiates 7 verse 25.." I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things...The apostle Paul before Festus declares that he speaks the words of truth and reason in presenting the gospel. (acts 26;25) In Isaiah 1;18 the Lord tells us to excersize our intellect by the words "Come now, and let us reason together"
To those who think that evolution is the answer to the demands of the intellect for a Godless explanation I would say that they need to come into the 21st century and toss Darwinian naturalism in the trash heap it belongs.

Answer 6

Are faith and intellect mutually exclusive?

Ultimately... Yes.

Answer 7

Intellectual integrity of capable minds precludes faith in the existence of the supernatural in all its guises.

Answer 8

No--nothing made by God could possibly rule out His existance.

Answer 9

FAITH IS UNSHAKABLE CONVICTION IN SOMETHING THAT HAS NOT YET HAPPENED......DIVINE THINGS ARE MIRACULOUS.....BEYOND CONCEPT OF THE INTELLECT

Answer 10

The more you pursue intellectual issues, you further yourself from faith.

In most cases.