Is religion rational?

Question

How do thinking people come to believe in a God or higher power?

How do rational people come to believe in an unprovable truth?...is it provable?

Answer 1

No, because religion is grounded on faith, and faith requires a LEAP that necessarily goes beyond reason. This leap may be a necessary foundation for reason, and it may be wise, but it cannot be rational because it MUST be grounded upon premises that are simply assumed without further rational argument.

In light of your additional details, I would add this:
ALL rationality is ultimately grounded upon faith, because reason cannot provide its own ground. Mathematician Kurt Godel was able to logically prove that ALL logic must ultimately rely on some unprovable assumptions. Basically, to think logically, you must have FAITH in the VALUE of logic! You must DESIRE to think logically, otherwise logical thinking cannot get started. I am emphasizing the terms ‘faith’, ‘value’, and ‘desire’ because these are aspects of human existence that are ultimately fundamentally beyond reason, but the reasoning capacity itself depends upon them. Thus rational people MUST have faith in some unprovable truths in order to be rational. Faith and desire are necessary preconditions for rational thinking. Logic cannot dictate that you must have faith in logic because to do so would commit the logical fallacy of a vicious circle (assuming the truth of what you are logically trying to prove). Logic cannot logically prove its own value without assuming its own value in the proof of its value! Thus reason begins with a faith in the value of reason, and a desire to be reasonable.

We also have to accept on faith that things simply are a certain way before you can begin the process of reasoning. We have faith in the reality of the world, for example. Solipsism is a logical possibility that cannot be absolutely ruled out by logic, thus we cannot PROVE that the world exists, we can only prove things by starting with the assumption that the world exists. This is another example of how rational people come to believe in unprovable truths.

Now coming to believe in God may require some additional leaps of faith, depending upon your definition of ‘God’. Folks like Spinoza and Einstein saw God as the totality of existence, and thus did not require much of any leap of faith beyond our faith in reason and the reality of the world. But traditional Christians must take a much, much broader leap of faith. Everything we know about Jesus comes from the Bible, thus you can’t simply start out having faith in Jesus. You must either convert to faith in Jesus based on a preliminary faith in the Bible, or you must learn to have faith in Jesus based on the traditions of your family, but these traditions are ultimately grounded on faith in the Bible, so even if you don’t actually read the Bible yourself, your faith ultimately still rests on the Bible. People often claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus – a sort of divine intuition or inspiration or feeling that he is near – but people in all religions have similar feelings for their various deities, so even this ultimately goes back to the Bible, or whatever religions tradition you are raised in. Thus traditional Christianity is ultimately grounded upon faith in the truths expressed in a book written and assembled by various authors, scribes, political leaders and bureaucrats many centuries ago. Christians need to have faith that, despite the many human hands and diverse human interests involved in the creation of the Bible, that ultimately God guided the whole process and made sure that it came out the way He wanted. This is simply not rational, although there is still room to argue that it might ultimately be wise. (Personal, I do not see it as wise either, but that’s just based on my own intuitions and faith.)

Answer 2

To be rational, something doesn't necessarily have to be provable. I think folks can look around at the universe, consider the likelihood that it came into being in exactly this way, and infer that their must have been a Creator (or Prime Mover, or God, or whatever you want to call it). You would be hard pressed to really put forward a convincing proof (though Descartes and Aquinas have tried), but the assertion is based on reason. Now, admittedly, the further details of religion require more faith and less rationality, but once you've inferred a divinity it seems natural to want to pay homage.

That seems every bit as rational to me as the atheistic sort of position, which really does rely on a sort of blind faith in the chaos of the cosmos.

Answer 3

Religions are not rational, but the concept of human beings believing in a higher power is rational. Spirituality is rational, religion is not.

Answer 4

No, i don't believe so. Most people are either raised (brain washed by parents) religious, or have some traumatic or stressful thing happen in their life and they are so distraught that they turn to religion. Has anyone ever done an experiment on whether or not someone looks for a "religion or higher being" if they have never been exposed to such thing? I think the results would be very interesting!

Answer 5

faith in maximum cases is irrational. to confirm that a concept to be rational, it must be based on, and constrained with the help of, purpose info. This additionally implies it could be concern to alter as new info is provided in. religious concept is predicated on subjective journey and is principally absolute, so this is irrational. different than for his or her faith, believers may well be the two rational or irrational. The rational ones usually understand that faith is *no longer* rational. The irrational ones are right here on R&S attempting to argue human beings out of atheism with what they mistake for good judgment.

Answer 6

It can be. Religious fundamentalism has given a bad rap to all forms of religious life, including the sizable number of faithful people who are quite rational and who interpret their sacred scriptures from a very rational viewpoint. It is imperative that we learn to see religion as a spectrum, not a one-dimensional caricature.

Answer 7

Religion is where people look when rational thought no longer can explain the miracles they experience. Ritual also plays a big part in our lives, and since modern culture has erased much of that, it can still be found in most belief systems.

Answer 8

Religion is absolutely rational. If you observe them better, all of them provide a good basis for society. They help preserving order (it is a sin to kill or steal) and holding it together (marriage).

As for the faith, you either have that or don't. The commonly acknowledged explanation is that we try to explain phenomena we don't understand.
Also note that religion provide a spiritual guide too. They give solutions for your problems and give a meaning for life, help overcome death... etc.

So yes, religion is completely rational. You can't prove it, but you can't deny it as well. Can you prove there is no God? Can you prove there is? Nope.

Answer 9

Religion is rational if the person professing it is rational and the people propagating are rational.... How do we believe? Because we are thought to.....

Answer 10

it depends.
if u dnt follow the priest/mullah/pujari/lama and try to find urself the TRUTH.
truth seeking is basic cause of every religion
later on they each religion got corrupted due to institutionalisation.
thats power game.......