What's the difference between "faith" and "reason"?

Answer 1

Somebody posted this link as an answer to one of my questions once. It is likely the cleanest answer to your question I have ever seen.
http://stupidevilbastard.com/Images2/sciencevsfaith.png

Answer 2

Faith is believing something because your emotions tell you it must be so...

Reason is believing something because your logic tells you it could be so..

Reason is subject to verification or falsification... faith is never subject to such a thing because your emotions cannot be verified to be true or false.

For example.. If I have faith that one day I will find a partner to share my life with that is based on my emotional view point... I want to have faith in that because I feel sad to think it would not happen.
Now if I reason that there are enough people in the world to provide mates for everyone and statistically there should exist a compatible mate for me personally.. then that is based on reasonable assumption and while being emotionally driven it is still logically supported... for faith there need be no logic only wishful thinking and a desire to stave off negative emotions. With reason it is different for with reason you can still weigh the possibility of different outcomes.. Faith doesnt allow for that, faith says I believe so it must be so, otherwise I will feel bad.... Reason says I only think.. so it may not be so, and no matter how I feel the truth is the truth.

Its like the difference between wishful thinking and rationality... I wish I could win the lottery but rationally I know it will likely never happen. Same with faith.. you have faith in something and you emotionally wish it to be true... but reason allows you to consider something as truth and still accept that it may not be true

Answer 3

Faith = relying on your belief that something is true rather than actually needing to prove it.

Reason = using logic to come up with an explanation that makes sense and is highly probable.

Proof = many times an extension of reason. It is when you actually have factual evidence leading you to reach a definitive conclusion. Usually it agrees with the assumption made through reason, but not always. There is less a chance that it will for sure match up with faith, as faith does not necessarily use as much reason.

For example, if someone told me they deposited some birthday money into my bank account, I could "have faith" that they just deposited 1,000,000 dollars and I'm a millionaire now.

But using *reason* I would say, "Let's think about this logically. *Logically* someone would probably not give 1,000,000 dollars for a birthday gift, so it probably is not true."

Then I would reaffirm my reason by proving it through checking my account balance.

Answer 4

Good question...Faith, is essentially the act of believing in something, or supporting it. It is not intrinsically supported or unsupported, some base faith off of nothing but a whim, others live their entire lives before they support an educated belief, in whatever it may be. Faith does not have to have any religious affiliation.

Reason, is the workings of man's mind toward something that is logical. Logic either perpetuates a faith in something, or often it crushes it because the belief was far to unsupported and didn't follow the outline for reasonable thoughts/beliefs.
In summation reason is the guiding ideal of logical views in life.

Answer 5

Faith is just something you believe in, whether there is physical evidence for it or not, like most any religion. Reason is thinking about something in a logical way, taking in everything about the subject and usually has some evidence of whatever it is.

Answer 6

True faith uses reason, but it is also a trust in God and a knowledge that we as human beings don't know all there is to know. I doubt God wants us to walk the world blindly. He wants us to prove and learn things, but to ultimately trust in him and his judgement, since he's been around the block a few times and knows a heck of a lot more than us.

Answer 7

Night and day. Reason is the application of the laws of logic to evidence to understand how something happened, or to predict how something will happen. Faith is the deliberate rejection of the use of logic, and since the ability to use logic is the defining characteristic of the species, to have faith is to reduce yourself to an animal. It is thus the ultimate evil.

Answer 8

"To see by faith, one must close the eye of reason." Ben Franklin


Faith is basing you belief on a feeling.

Reason is basing a belief on what can be proven by fact.

Answer 9

Faith is based on trust. You have faith in the designer of the chair you are sitting in that they used the right materials and workmanship.

Reason is given evidence and deducing a truthful conclusion based on the facts provided.

Do you have faith in the following?
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." - Isa 1:18

Answer 10

Faith: God's way is not mans' ways -- man confounds the simple. Faith is like the wind: you can't see it, but you know it's there.

Reason: is an assigned benchmark, based on the level of reasoning by the reasoner.

Answer 11

Faith is something u beleive without proof.
Reason should be logically correct without contradictions.

God is real and u should be strong in your faith.
But the delay in the bus travel should be explained with reason.