Faith and reason are not opposites.
Or, better put, faith and reason do not contradict each other.
In TV debates, newspaper articles, etc., people like to write off Creation by saying it's just faith. No reason involved. Just blind faith. Here's another something that might surprise you:
God does not even WANT us to have blind faith.
God is a very reasonable, logical god! He doesn't want us to follow him blindly. He doesn't want us to take everything every preacher says. He doesn't want us to take in the Bible without looking into it, testing it, questioning it. God thinks that faith and reason should go hand in hand!
Why have faith in something if reason says otherwise? It doesn't make sense, and our God is a VERY sensical God!
Evolutionists like to make God out to be like a grown-up version of Santa Claus. Santa makes little kids feel safe, watched, and loved by someone bigger than just their own family circle. The child has faith, and that's all that matters to him.
As the child gets older and is exposed to more ideas and opinions, he will be told that Santa isn't real. The child will, at first, think this is a horrible lie and refuse to look into it further. As the child gets older, he will probably preform a little expirement and stay up to see if Santa comes.
When the child sees his parents sneaking gifts under the tree, he will be faced with two options: one, stick with faith and continue to believe something he knows is a lie, or two, go with reason and give up his faulty belief.
If the child choses to believe in Santa despite what he has seen, people will probably put up with him, maybe even think he is cute, but they will not take him seriously. If he continues to believe in Santa into adulthood, he will probably be labeled insane.
So, is the God of the Bible like Santa Claus? Just a cute little myth that one must rely on faith to believe? One can defend a myth by saying that it gives comfort, and can even be morally and socially helpful if kept in its place. Even athiests worry about what will happen to society if religion disappears completely. Christians can even buy the tolerance of agnostics by using the "faith escape".
So, for all scientific and intellegent purposes, Christianity is classified as a "higher supersition", which is basically an irrational belief that's relatively respected in society.
But all this isn't true. Faith and reason are not opposites, they are not mutually exclusive, and they do not contradict each other.
I know what you're thinking: "Easy to say. Show me. Prove it."
Okay. I will.
Keep reading, because that's just what I intend to do. I refuse to be one of the Christians who believes in God simply because it's what they were always taught, it makse them feel better, and they don't want to explore other options. I refuse to take what I've always been given simply BECAUSE it's what I've always been given. I refuse to believe in God only because it makes me feel better about my life. God gave me a brain, he gave me resources to explore, and theories that need to be looked into.
I firmly and honestly believe that God is happiest when we challenge him, look into things for ourselves, test him. Wanna know why?
Because God isn't scared.
God has nothing to be afraid of.
God is the truth, so what IS there to be afraid of?
Why should we refuse to test God because we're afraid he won't stand up to it? If we're afraid to look too hard, if we're afraid we'll disprove God, why are we still believing in him? If God is a big phoney, DON'T YOU WANT TO KNOW?
That's why this series is not just for Evolutionists. It's for Creationists, too. Don't be afraid to test God. Don't be afraid to look into the Bible, asked the hard questions, tear apart Jesus's logic.
Because faith and reason are not opposites.
