Chesterton on faith, reason and skepticism. Opinions?

Question

“The peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought. It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should anything go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?" The young sceptic says, "I have a right to think for myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says, "I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all." –G.K. Chesterton

Full text of book here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16769/167...

I recommend everyone read it, especially christians!

I think this link will work, otherwise just open one of the links on the before posted link. Its hard to express exactly what he is stating from this one quote..so read if you get a chance!

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16769/16769-8.txt

He is writing here about the validity of knowledge and essentially, justifying the practicality of knowledge. Philosophy people will understand best! LOL.

divadarya- I do not believe you are thinking of G.K. Chesterton. I have never once heard that he struggled with homosexual urges. Even so, that is rather a non-issue if you are familiar with the brilliance of his thought and faith.

Answer 1

I absolutely love to read G.K. Chesterton. Ravi Zacharias is the one who alerted me to this thinking man.

Here are some other thoughtful quotes of his:
• Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
• If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.
• The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.
• You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
• There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

Answer 2

broken link
edit: yep, the second one works

seems to me chesterton is saying, in a very sophisticated way of course, 'if i can't know anything then neither can you, nah nah nah, i'm taking my toys and going home'

"He is writing here about the validity of knowledge and essentially, justifying the practicality of knowledge."

but it sounds like he's saying exactly the opposite. was he a very sarcastic person? i've got to appreciate this, from the introduction:

"I do not see how this book can avoid being egotistical; and I do not
quite see (to tell the truth) how it can avoid being dull. Dullness
will, however, free me from the charge which I most lament; the charge
of being flippant. Mere light sophistry is the thing that I happen to
despise most of all things, and it is perhaps a wholesome fact that this
is the thing of which I am generally accused. I know nothing so
contemptible as a mere paradox; a mere ingenious defence of the
indefensible."

Answer 3

Interesting, if I read that right. He would disagree with the notion of narrowing science to conform to faith(flat earth all the way up to rejecting evolution) since it seems he is asserting that reason eventually will always confirm faith, in a sense.
He clearly says that thought and inquiry should always be completely free, even if it is counter to the norm.
Chesterton struggled his whole life with homosexual urges that he prayed to be repressed, as was the style/morality of the day(the founder of the YMCA had the same problem).
One wonders what a man of his literary, spiritual and intellectual gifts would do if he had been born today.

Answer 4

If good logic is as misleading as bad logic then we're doomed. But either way it is still not a case to believe in a deity. If our senses and minds are so untrustworthy, then it is an inevitable conclusion that there is no way of knowing if belief in a deity is correct. Therefore we are all innocent and belief in NO DEITY is the correct path to take.

I think Chesterton's ideas lean toward the opposite of what he asserted. This just goes to show that it is probably best to leave reason and logic in the hands of the scientific.

Answer 5

It is making a good point that no one should limit options either way. All avenues of intellectual thought should be left open and those include both the side of science and the side of religious faith. The idea behind it is we really can not know anything even if at some point we think we know everything.

Answer 6

In other words, Chesterton (writing an apology here) wants us to think that discarding faith means we cannot rely on reason, either, merely because he says so.

But here, he confuses his "faith" in an invisible sky pixie with the sort of "faith" (which should not be called faith at all) that the sun will rise tomorrow or that gravity will remain in operation. One is based on experience, and one is based on a witchdoctor just saying so.

Sorry, Gil. No cookie for you.