Is putting faith above reason for the weakminded?

Answer 1

Yes. Consider: "...an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error." -- Ayn Rand

Answer 2

Not inherently. And remember, faith and religion are two different things. Although, Religion (not faith) has done this as a matter of course for just about as long as religion has existed.

It is the phenomenon of 'herd mentality'. If one believes in an all-powerful being, then those who proclaim themselves to be the emissaries of said being have a measure of control and we all know of the trappings of power.

The question of Faith over reason is a different matter entirely. Let's take, for example, the Buddhist Monks.
I doubt that anyone would call these people weakminded, yet the philosophy of life that they live is inherently faith-based. This is not to say that they do not incorporate reason into their lives.

I do admit that those of a weakminded proclivity are much more easily swayed by religion, but faith can be a powerful adversary if one is not as strong-willed as other people.

Answer 3

I have to answer yes, and I'm going to say sorry in advance to the faithful. The question asks if putting faith above reason for the weakminded and not whether faith itself is bad. I believe in putting reason above faith at all times it can help. And faith above reason, only where reason cannot.

When you put a sick child in the hospital and then pray, that is fine. If you don't put a child in there at all, that's just stupidity.

Answer 4

I don't think so. For some people faith doesn't come easy, so no.

Let me describe something to you. It's our reality. Everyone is born - you, your wife, your kids, your dog, your cat, etc. Everyone and everything DIES. That makes the entire planet one big cemetery, full of corpses, with a very long history of dead bodies. There isn't a single place you can look where something or someone hasn't died.

Some people have a hard time with this. They believe in God and an afterlife, requiring faith, because they think that the universe being a huge graveyard isn't such a great thing and they want to believe there is more to it than that.

I myself believe there has to be more to it than that. My problem solving ability is that of 1 in 1,000, so I know I'm not weakminded. Having faith is nothing so simple as you suggest.

Answer 5

If it is, then perhaps putting reason above faith is for the weakminded, as well.

Faith and reason do not stand in opposition to each other. They are complementary. Many great philosophers and theologians (St. Thomas Aquinas is pre-eminent among them) have demonstrated that fact. Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical called "Fides et Ratio" ("Faith and Reason") that discussed the same matter.

Answer 6

everyone has faith, even the atheist. for example, an atheist is sick and goes to a prominent doctor. the doctor does his examination and tells the patient, he requires surgery. the doctor has a high success rate for this process. so the patient decides to do the procedure. at this point, the atheist is using faith. the rreason is that, he has know idea if it will work for him. he could be in the percentage of those who it doesn't work for. he relies on the skill of the doctor's hand and his knowledge of medicine to bring him thru the operation. you cannot see skill or knowledge. neither can you touch or assign it geo-spatial location. yet he allows the doctor to perform. thus he has faith by believing in the doctor to do what he says he can do. he hadn't seen the end result, but it's the hope that he has, that all will be well. so faith isn't that unreasonable. so your claim that faith makes one weakminded is false.

Answer 7

My reason tells me that reason cannot provide all the answers to every question, even in theory. Reason requires information upon which to work, and the world often provides very little of that to go on.

What then should a person make use of when reason is incapable of solving a problem? Nothing? That hardly seems reasonable at all.

Be careful not to make the false assumption that all faith is easy. Faith can be very difficult indeed, especially when it is not in line with that of others.

To deny your faith and to just accept the failure of reason seems to me to be the MOST weakminded thing of all.

Answer 8

If your child falls into a freezing river and you know he has only minutes to live, but you jump in anyhow, what drives you? will you give up because the water is cold? or call your faith and every last bit of strength to best all odds to save him?
My guess is that not even for a second would you feel ''weak" in any way.

Answer 9

I think that faith without a reason is for the weakminded.
But you can have faith above reason as long as there is some reason for the faith.

Answer 10

Much less than putting reason above faith is for the weak in spirit !!

Answer 11

Metaphysics and philosophy are both theory coming from "reason". Faith is knowing that the things that are seen were made by the unseen. That God has demonstrated that he is a rewarder of the faithful, of those that seek him diligently. So the faithful ground their hopes in the substance of that faith because God has proven faithful in his word before.