The Proper use of Reason in Christianity

[Carl Emerson]

Interesting - the tree was the tree of knowledge - not pride.

I think the selfish quest for knowledge comes first then the pride of having attained it.

 

[QvQ]

Interesting - the tree was the tree of knowledge - not pride.

I think the selfish quest for knowledge comes first then the pride of having attained it.

The motive was to be equal to God. Satan's sin was Pride, and he used the arguments by which he seduced himself to seduce Adam. The motivation in this case appears to be the sin and the action merely a mirror. So Pride is the sin.
The absolute acid test of science and religion is that it is the Truth. 1) To refuse to question the premise (theory) while defending it against anyone who dares question with accusations of "science deniers" is suspiciously akin to dogmatic. Then to manipulate raw data to prove the theory, "the earth is warming/expanding, that proves evolution. The planet is cooling/contracting, that proves evolution. The planet is not cooling or warming, well then I guess it must be evolving due to glaciers, volcanoes or whatever and that proves evolution". No matter what, the knowers have it covered. Give the theory a tweak, plug in the data wherever it best proves the premise.
That is Pride. To give it up is to Know Not. Knowing is the game, same as with Adam, so yes you are right. It is the Tree of Knowledge but I say the sin is Pride
I posted this elsewhere but it goes here also. The basic premise of Christianity is God, I did question that premise. I asked God if He exists. He does.

 

[fhansen]

I Facebook blogged this today, and decided to do a thread on it.


I found a nice little article that talks a bit about the proper use reason in the Christian Faith. Originally I was on the web looking at articles that pertain to atheists because, I sometimes talk a lot to atheists which can be frustrating. This topic however is an important topic because I've often seen reason downplayed or portrayed as being downright unspiritual by some Christians of various traditions."



"The biblical understanding of reason and the use of the mind in pursuing rational lines of arguments is quite different from that of the rationalist. “The Christian is not hostile to reason as reason, but to Reason as god. The Christian does not believe in reason [as an ultimate authority]; he believes in God and he uses reason under God.”[7] We were created to use our minds. “Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding” (Prov. 32:9a). The Christian who does not think in terms of God’s Word is described as “senseless and ignorant,” like the “beast” (Ps. 73:22). They act “like unreasoning animals” (2 Pet. 2:12). Reasoning is required of the Christian and non-Christian, but on God’s terms. In this way, “reason can be thought of as a tool — man’s intellectual or mental capacity. Taken in this sense, reason is a gift of God to man, indeed part of the divine image. When God bids His people ‘Come let us reason together’ (Isa. 1:18), we see that, like God, we are capable of rational thought and communication. God has given us our mental abilities to serve and glorify Him. It is part of the greatest commandment of the law that we should”[8] love God with our mind (Matt. 22:37). In general, the church agreed. Take, for example, Tertullian (c. 155–230): “Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason—nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason.”[9]

The Soulless Atheist • by Gary DeMar • The American Vision

Yes, reason is a beautiful gift, a huge part of what makes us human and reflective of the image of God. It's a necessary ingredient of free will-and free will is the part of us that makes us capable of accepting and acting in justice or righteousness, or of failing to. Reason helps us to learn of our complete depravity here where God is nowhere in sight and not in control of the moral world of humans. We can reason our way to the necessity for a designer-creator God and while reason cannot arrive by itself at the supernatural truths that God has revealed, those truths can still never contradict reason; they are simply beyond reason's ability to ascertain. Faith and reason are totally compatible, IOW.

 

[fhansen]

The motive was to be equal to God.

Yes, and the knowledge was supposed to make them like God and what else other than pride, the desire to be more and different from who we really are, would compel them to make such a choice, to desire such a thing. I appreciate a teaching I'm familiar with on this matter:

"In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God".279