Reconciliation between Reason and Revelation!

Reconciliation between Reason and Revelation!

Although monotheistic religions arbitrate reason and the universe to convince man of God's existence, however, there is nothing can be advanced as valid and decisive evidence, not even a solid argument. Man, torn between belief and disbelief, remains suspended as ever on the threshold of ignorance, recoiling on his own convictions!!

Reason and revelation are on two different levels.

Reason deals with what the mind thinks, and in the main what is plausible. Revelation is concerned with religious thought as is laid out in the Old Testament the New One and the Qur'an. Every believer in these believes that what is proclaimed is true.

From St Aquinas to Leibniz, al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, Ibn Khaldun and some modern thinkers, all have attempted to marry reason with revelation. Nothing is less certain.

But the attempt is worthwhile for what gives credibility to revealed texts if not supported by reason.

The Aristotelian model that when an event is impossible or even improbable the mind loses interest. The eventuality has to be either probable or possible that man may believe in it.

Likewise any argument without any support of reason loses its interest and maybe considered as valid.

When the divine Books talk about God as a creator of the universe reason digests this idea and its plausibility can be admitted, for who else could have brought the universe about? This is the argument of the believer. The agnostic does not believe in revelation and hence does not consider the universe as the creation of a God.

In the same manner we can consider the creation of life and its manifestation. Man is created by God according to religious texts. A believer would admit its plausibility by reason. His reason does not accept any other possibility. The agnostic or atheist rejects God as the creator and hence his reason admits the plausibility of other factors in the creation, like absurdity, hazard and chance, or nothing at all at the heart of it.

But the agnostic and the atheist have to explain how hazard and chance made the world.

The problematic for the two views belief and disbelief in God remains suspended on the reality of lack of proof. No proof is provided for either argument. Especially the religious one. Evidence is needed.

Reason cannot possibly prove the existence of God and this is where reason and revelation part company. But reason questions the religious arguments and this in itself is positive thing for religious arguments must be subject to reason.

Otherwise, we are all blinded in our thinking, blind to truth. But the big question that imposes itself is the plausibility of reason itself. Christians believe in the Trinity and that God is man himself.

Well, if reason is applied the probability of this assumption can be very little. But there are more than one and half billions of people believe in this doctrine today. The age of the world is believed to be in the Judaic belief as far as over five thousands of years.

Scientific proof has revealed that the age of the universe could be over 13.3-20 billion years ago. Our planet earth is estimated back in age to some fine billion years ago. Anthropologists trace the age of man back to 9-8 millions of years.

Well. How reasonably valid is the argument of the Torah?

The Qur'an talks about fifty thousands of years considered as one day of the celestial time.

The three Books talk about doomsday and this is submitted to our reason. How reasonable can this event be? Well, look at the structure of the universe and our planet earth. Whatever is on its surface experiences a life-death cycle. Whoever brought things about can recreate things again, at His will.

The religious texts talk about paradise and hell fire. Well, we have paradise of the surface of our planet earth and within it a huge ball of fire.

The same power that brought our planet earth into its structure can repeat it again with paradise and hell fire.

Man is put to death, all humans are mortals. Man was nothing and he was brought about from nothing, then he is turned into nothing. The same power can repeat the same thing.

This reason cannot deny and if we think well the reasonability of the religious argument can be considered. It is not absurd but not impossible. In fact its probability, according to our reason, can be maintained.

What is essential is that we are responsible for our reasoning.