Argh! Tell me something. I give you two options: guess heads or tails in a coin flip, or guess a six digit number that I'm thinking of. You'll get $10 if you get it correct. Which game would you rather play?
One gives you a one out of two chance; the other gives you a one in a million chance. If you want to win $10, you would choose the coin toss....... right...... ?
I came back from a class and a bunch of students say it doesn't matter! I sincerely don't get it. They don't think that we ought to act rationally. This is not just a gripe; I want to lead on to this important point: should we be rational when it comes to our faith?
This point is a little tricky because not all matters of faith can be rationalised fully, but I must qualify this carefully. I think we should be rational as possible, but I also accept that some things are beyond the capacity of human reason to rationalise. But this does'nt mean that we therefore should not rationalise about everything else!
Just as a matter of fact, the student that I am refering to happens to be a protestant. I may be generalising a little here, but because there is quite a lot of emphasis in protestanism of personal faith, I feel that they are more willing to throw rationalism out of the window. "Why rationalise! All that matters is God and me!". This I'm sure very well applies to a lot of Catholics. They are not willing to be rational at all about things. I think that this is a mistake.
What do you think?
Friday, April 29, 2005
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1 comment:
i guess it depends. in the case of the student both you and i definitely think he's being stupid, but maybe, just maybe, he's thinking " i don't really care cos i don't need the 10 bucks". Which in a way is good cos he is learning that there are never only two options (in most cases). There is always another perspective, something more important, or a path less taken. Anyway, whether he meant it that way or not, what's poignant here is that this is also the case with faith. We rationalize, but sometimes too much. We are have immense (blind) faith, but sometimes too much. It's the continuous re-assessment on our beliefs that keeps us in the broad direction to heaven. Making choices daily, sometimes difficult, sometimes easy, is the burden of carrying our crosses right? So that we can keep on the path to God. So yes, you're right. throwing rationality out the window is silly. That's why we have brains. But we shouldn't think we have too much.
Sorry for the long rambling. Cheers
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