Mackie and Faith

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Do you think a human being ought to persist in believing things which he doesn't have reason to believe?

No.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
No.

But yet you believe the authenticity of Christ while explicitly denying that you have reason to --- yea, while believing it's impossible to have reason to. What's wrong with you?

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Do you think a human being ought to persist in believing things which he doesn't have reason to believe?

What if he should believe implicitly?

Never mind 😞

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
But yet you believe the authenticity of Christ while explicitly denying that you have reason to --- yea, while believing it's impossible to have reason to. What's wrong with you?

I'm not denying that I have reason to believe in Christ's authenticity. What I'm asserting, and I think Mackie makes this clear, is that pure rationality cannot arrive at faith via a priori reasoning. If you think faith is merely a subversion of the principles of understanding arising from the psychological processes of wish fulfillment, that's a rational conclusion. However, what can rationality do to rule out a separate and wholly distinct avenue of perceiving reality? That which provides the individual with superiorly authoritative knowledge of ultimate truth, something far more definite and immediate than the careful and tenuous calculations of the intellect.

I wonder if a purely rational individual (if such a person could exist) would be so utterly paralyzed by his a priori reasonings against the existence of God that he found it impossible to find enough reason to actually seek God.

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
But yet you believe the authenticity of Christ while explicitly denying that you have reason to --- yea, while believing it's impossible to have reason to. What's wrong with you?

What happens ( at least for me) is that you have enough reasons to be supicious that God may exist. However , your rationality cannot take you all the way because the rational argument is not conclusive. There is no slam dunk rational proof for God that will convince anyone properly , but there is enough of an argument for a man to start seeking God . From that point on different things can happen , Jesus said "seek and you will find" and then starts a whole new journey into truth. I think this might be the process ephin is describing but he will confirm this himself.