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Faith and Reason, Reason and Faith,…, Thought
"Parmenides : the One becomes younger than the other things, because he appeared to be older and to be born before, whereas the other things become older than the One, because their birth is posterior. And, by virtue of the same reasoning, it's thus that the other things behave towards the One, in the measure exactly where they seemed older than him, because born before him.
Young Aristotle : it appears well, in these conditions that it is there so ….
Parmenides : According to all this reasoning thus, the One is and becomes older and younger than himself and that the other things, and he is not and does not become older or younger than himself and what the other things.
Young Aristotle : it is absolutely exact.
Parmenides : Now, as this One participates to time and as he has property from becoming older and younger, is not it a necessity that he participates to past, to future and to moment ?
Young Aristotle : A necessity …
Parmenides : And of Him, obviously, there will be science, opinion and sensation, because ourselves we exercise at the present time to his subject all these activities.
Young Aristotle : What you say is just." (Cf. Plato - Parmenides, 155a, c, d).
Yes, it's so, there is no belief without reasoning, and no reasoning without belief !
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About five centuries BC, Greece has been theater of essential conceptual headways which gave birth to physics and philosophy.
Nevertheless, this "childbirth" has not been without difficulty because it has "launched" a "war of the ideas and men, as for primordial causes", which continues since more of two thousand years.
Fortunately today, the ancestral Greek concept : logos (Héraclite - 55o, - 480), appears particularly realistic ; indeed, we must henceforth recognize undeniable role of the sense (notably of the word, …, of the information and of the processes organizations) in the management of the life's phenomenon and, ipso facto, of the universe this incommensurable creation for ever unfinished.
In principio erat Verbum ... In the beginning was the Word ... (Jn 1, 1) !
To what is reality of mysterious activities of transcendent order, are implicated (associated),
an essential fact which should enable from establishing a reasoned tolerance between the men.
Is not it indispensable in this period of despair and of crisis which strike nowadays, humanity ?
Evidently, for it it is not enough to meet the others and to pray ; we must work motivated notably by ceaseless researchs of novelties, which take place in our cells.
Let's beware then to holy Thomas speech :
"Vita contemplativa simpliciter melior est quam vita activa" - Contemplative life is more essential than active life - (Cf. Summa theologica),
this speech has today, no scientific and reasonable justification.
Saint Augustine who privileged l’"inquisitio, aut inventio veritatis : ut in ea quisque proficiat",
that is, who privileged inquiry or the truth's discovery, in order to have profit of it (Cf. De civitate Dei – XIX, 19),
was more realistic.
Let us repeat, we are,
and the poles (centres) of creative activities, not only indispensable to preservation and to development of our body, but also, necessary to life's phenomenon,
and ceaselessly reconstructed by permanent renewal of our cells and by continuous exchanges of cosmic particles.
Thus, creation and the faiths and researchs for knowledge that it presupposes, are essential acts !
Consequently, we understand better, interdependence of the faith and reasoned acts (of the reasoning), and vice versa.
You have noticed that we did not speak about reason; we use expression "reasoned acts", because reason is not an operator, no more than the consciousness or the thought moreover !
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Let's insist more.
Faith, fruit of presentiments and of abstract incitements, cannot be structured and expressed without acts of reason,
more exactly, cannot be structured and expressed without activities of transcendent order recognized as reasonings (as reasoned acts).
Alas, still today, it is only discussed of the monotheism by referring to events and to men (the prophets, saints, martyrs, theologians) who have "enamelled" its history, without speaking really of the realism of its dogmas.
However, is not it the realism, is not it the dogmas’s adequacy with reality’s knowledges, that give the credibility to post-mortem monotheists expectations ?
Actually, this problem has been evaded constantly ; the theologians, often bumptious, have persuaded the believers, that the faith is a specific gift of God implying no act of reason.
But it is not so ; not only faith presupposes conscious understandings and their logics, but also innate understandings.
Besides, at conscious level, these understandings, enriched by epoch truths and by civilizations truths, are evolutive.
Thus, without any doubt, the faith presupposes comprehensions, faith cannot be "dissociated" of logical reasonings (or of non-logical reasonings )
! God cannot change that ; it is a divine entity who acts in and by us, recognizing Herself in the I (me, ego, spirit).
Let's quote some historic facts which strengthens our speech.
Convinced that the Christ has no human soul but that he is directly animated by the "logos" (by Word) and having noticed that the "logos" undergoes all human passions, Arius (250 - 336), formed at school of Lucien d' Antioche and condemned at council of Nicea ( 325 ), concluded that Word could not have same nature as God.
Expressed differently, according to arianism there is no unity of substance between Father and Son, between almighty God and Word who has been made a man.
This doctrine and its arguments depend, evidently, on a logical reasoning.
Holy Thomas himself, recognized it :
"Arius supposed that the Christ had had no soul, that he had only been a flesh for which divinity would have been soul. It is by a sort of necessity that he made this supposition which wants to assert that Son of God is an inferior creature to Father; for to prove it, he chose texts of the Holy Writings which emphasize inferiority … (Summa Contra Gentiles - holy Thomas Aquinas - Chapter 32).
We could also quote Nestorius (380 - 451) who suggested seeing in the Christ, conjunction of two complete persons, proposition analysed also, in "Summa Contra Gentiles" :
"according to this position, God's Word was united with this man only by a grace, and if the God's Word lives in this man, it is not for God's Word be embodied, because then God would have been embodied very often since world's creation.".
So many speechs which are showing that faith of the Christian theologians (of all theologians),
more exactly, that expressions of their faith have required concepts exchange, intellectual jousts even, necessitating multiple reasonings.
It is there so for any faith !
Nevertheless, faith is an innate and divine call as incitements which lead us to work so as to know, and to research so as to know more,
of incitements which can be developped or moderated, even annihilated, by lived experiences and education.
We are thus very remote of Thomas's understanding, even of the common understanding, of the faith :
a gift of God Himself, to some men.
So, faith, more exactly faith's expressions, as any belief, are fruits of transcendent activities similar to those whom necessitates any world's understanding and it’s why for example, intellectual creation activities which enable sciences's development, in their nature : divine, are not different from those which enable from expressing spirituality by dogmas and rites.
More generally, "faith's dynamics", "faith's intelligence", " life's dynamics" and "universe's dynamics" require two orders of activities : physical and transcendent,
even, they are of essential facts which should lead the theologians to recognize permanent implication of a divine entity, not only in man, not only in every being, but also, in inert matter.
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Holy Thomas also interrogated himself on impact of the reasoning (according to him, of the reason) in faith’s expressions, by trying to answer two major questioning :
- reason, can it enrich faith and in what limits ?,
- is it necessary, and how to establish a "continuity" between the reflections on God, man, moral, sacraments ... ? (cf. Summa Contra Gentiles - 1259/1264, Summa Theologica - 1267/1274).
Regrettably, as saint Augustine :
" … If thus it is reasonable that for attaining heights which we cannot still reach, faith precedes reason, it is evident that this reason which persuades us, precedes itself faith, (Cf. Letter to Consentius 120-222, 3),
he imagined reason as an operator who has powers, and has considered that some pre-established laws manage universe.
Disastrous errors, we shall never repeat enough,
the universal laws are formalizations (expressions) of unchanging behaviors, and, naturally, they don't have faculties which enable judgments, choices, ..., decisions and actions.
Reason either, is not an operator who can recognize, analyze, …, persuade ; so, it is preferable from speaking of reasonings, or of reasoned activities (reasoned acts), if we do not want ambiguities.
As for logics, they are singular expressions of transcendent links,
notably those which enable coherence of the virtual prints, concepts, ideas, of value's references, ..., which "cohabit" in abstraction's domain.
So, the logics being associated with the relative and sufficient truths of the moment, we understand better why, that is logical and truth today, can be illogical and an error tomorrow !
Besides, as regards the permanent interactions between faith and reasoning, we gladly paraphrase Descartes :
"Always I have considered that these two questions, God and soul, were the main which must be rather demonstrated with reasonings of the sciences and philosophy than by those of the theology ; because although it is sufficient to us who are faithful, from believing by faith that there is a God, and that human soul does not die with body, certainly it does not seem possible to persuade the unbelievers, that there is a God, even a moral virtue, if in the first place we do not prove to them these two things by natural reasoning …
it seems that we are informed that all that we can know about God, can be shown with reasonings that our only spirit is able to give us, it is not necessary to research elsewhere that in ourselves." (Inspired by a text of the metaphysical Meditations, Preface).
So much essential facts which make numerous speechs obsolete ; remember Hegel who has imagined logic as the "Thought which thinks itself", and Auguste Comte who has believed to advent of the positive reason,
of essential facts which always are ignored !
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Yes, as Aristotle said already :
" the one who wants to know, has to believe ",
but also all beliefs necessitate reasonings.
So, how be a theologian today without having meditated beforehand fact that not only we transcend constantly the things for judging them, but also, that we are henceforth able of knowing matter's interior by penetrating in it ?,
we, being creative entity who animates us and who reasons by the I (me, ego, subject, spirit).
Thus, common understanding of the transcendence state and of the reason is completely changed because so that it is possible, this entity has to be transcendent on account of her nature (essence, order) and not after only her implication in man.
For example, our understanding differs much from the one of the pope Benedict XVI ; remember his speech at the University of Ratisbonne (on September 2006) concerning " Faith, Reason and the University".
Excerpts :
"I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.[1] It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor …
"God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death ...
Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the λόγος". This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, σὺν λόγω, with logos. Logos means both reason and word - a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance ...".
Certainly we do according acts that we can qualify of reasonable (what is quite different of : "we act according to the reason"),
but we can not speak of a reason which is creative, reason is not an "operator" ; actually, reason is a representative concept of faculties which enable recognitions, judgements, choices, …, creations and actions.
As for faith, evidently it is not fruit of the soul.
As the body, our physical identity, which is receptacle of biologic structures (the cells),
soul which is representative of our spiritual identity, is receptacle of the transcendent activities, of divine character, which characterize every being,
of transcendent activities that notably enable from expressing our world's understanding and our beliefs, when they emerge from consciousness state.
Philosophy and theology require, more than yesterday, precise concepts and a very big semantic rigour.
We adhere however to remark of Benedict XVI : the encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance.
Regrettably, the catholic theologians privileged biblical tradition to detriment of the Greek universalism, and shut themselves in a dogmatism from which, today, they do not know how they can manage to get out.
Let's specify besides, that this dehellenization process is anterior to singular spiritual orientations quoted by Pope :
"Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the postulates of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this programme forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole. The liberal theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ushered in a second stage in the process of dehellenization, with Adolf von Harnack as its outstanding representative. When I was a student, and in the early years of my teaching, this programme was highly influential in Catholic theology too. It took as its point of departure Pascal's distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jaco.".
Fortunately, at this beginning of third millennium, the sciences, particularly neurobiology, enable a new and revolutionary understanding of the life's phenomenon.
This understanding that for the one who is in a research of primordial causes, necessitates another comprehensions of the reason, the consciousness and the thought,
incites notably to recognizing the world’s duality : cogito ergo mundus vivit (I think therefore world is living).
This understanding enables also, from postulating permanent implication in the reality, of a creative entity of transcendent order, but not omnipotent, what presupposes out of necessity :
an omnipotence, a supreme transcendence, God.
It is so, more that a commonplace synthesis between Neoplatonism (Plotinism) and Cartesianism.
When will these facts be recognized ?
Then and then only, a fruitful dialogue will be possible between the goodwill men.
Concerning the thought !
Let us remember Descartes :
"… we must avoid ambiguity of the word : thought, because we can take it for the thing which thinks, and also for action of this thing. " (Cf. Metaphysical Meditations, Letter to Mr Clerselier).
This semantic vagueness is very old ; already, Aristotle had seen in logic "the thought of the Thought".
It is true indeed, that often in a speech, when it is not in same sentence, this word designates an "operator" or the mental (abstract) constructions as the concepts and ideas.
Particularly, the thought is generally understood as operator who judges the beings, events and world, with of value references : positive, large, ..., true, just, …, good, ...
Evidently, in philosophical and theological debate, with the current knowledges, this lack of rigour is not acceptable any more.
So, only expression "activity of thought" (and not : activity of the thought) enables from not ignoring creative entity "master of the sense", who elaborates the concepts, thoughts, ideas, anticipations, …, beliefs.
Nevertheless, it's an too simplistic expression because the thoughts imply, besides numerous faculties of transcendent order, multiple processes and phenomena.
Let us quote,
- the biological memories which are data banks, the most remarkable being unquestionably, those which enable from perpetuating the genetic heritage,
- and the processes of transmission of the sense.
Certainly, the sense's problem (its recognition, its memorization and its transmission) is the object of debates but regrettably, without big philosophic and theological headways.
According us, for example, no sufficient answer was supplied this day, as for both major questioning :
- how, an alive structure can it be memory of information and of processes organizations ?
- how, groups of number : 0 and 1, can it be digital vectors of a speech, of a painting, of a music, … ?
Now, recent discoveries enable from understanding better these processes.
Naturally, the biological memories are particles, atoms and molecules, but how, is it possible ?
That is possible because electromagnetic waves are associated with them, and that these waves are the only ones able to cross the quantum vacuum.
Therefore, the primordial vectors of the "sense" are electromagnetic wave trains inexorably associated to molecular and atomic states of the matter.
But, it is necessary that characteristics of these wave trains are interpreted,
and it’s not thoughts that make it !
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A fact remains, activities of thought ( the thoughts) help us to act ; let’s remember that in medieval philosophy they were "handmaids" of the contemplation (of the meditation) and in antique philosophy, means which enable from expressing our being's state
But then, how can thoughts and thus spirit enable control of our behaviours and of our biological balances ?,
knowing that recent scientific experiments show that the meditation and prayer, activities with a purely spiritual objective, can stabilize heart rhythm and stimulate immune system. (Cf. Newberg and d'Aquili - Why God won't go away ?),
of experiments which would satisfy Hegel, him who tried to "reconcile" the spirit with the reality !
Concerning the interactions between the body and thoughts, let us quote works of Benjamin Libet (1916 – 2007) which show that thoughts which emerge from consciousness state, our conscious thoughts, (and our acts), are always preceded by (they come after) of specific activities of the brain.
But even there, don't be deluded, brain is not an operator as it is said nowadays ; it's a biological structure which enables development of our spiritual life, of which thoughts are singular expressions.
So many facts which give evidence of the implication in our body, of an unique creative entity, who can express thoughts, can manage our biological balances and organs's evolutions, can act, only if she disposes of a healthy brain, sufficiently and correctly structured.
We are thus very remote from biblical tradition, according to which work is a God's punishment,
remote also of saint Augustine, who saw in work, means for pushing away the temptations and to help meditation (rule of saint Augustine),
remote alike of holy Thomas who was considering, as Aristotle, that :
"Only the necessity of remaining alive, constrains to the work" (Cf. Summa contra Gentiles).
It’s true, this famous ancestors could not know, nor imagine the anticipations and ceaseless researchs of the novelty which take place in our cells, and in the ones of every being,
because they were certain, as still are today the scientists, the philosophers and, alas theologians, that universal laws govern world,
as if this laws had faculties which enable recognitions, judgments according value references, ..., decisions and actions !
Paul Moyne
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