Jake Bishop

Feb. 12, 2001

Faith and Reason

The author writes on Fideism:

The notion that religious belief-systems represent the believer’s “most fundamental” assumptions and thus cannot be tested by anything else may involve an ambiguity in the word fundamental.

… but it does not follow from this that these beliefs are “fundamental” in the sense of being more evident, and more obviously true, than anything else she knows or believes.

I would like to define truth as a percieved belief that is either proven, or compared with other contrary beliefs and seen as the most probable, most supported belief, to the point that it is percieved as universial and infallible.

There is a quality to truth, once seen prior to reason as questionable, after testing it with your mental ability that is seen as being more evident as you learn about that truth and more obviously true as your ability to understand it increases.

For the Fideist, religious belief is more than a utility or rule; it is truth, on a level that no other truths can reach.  For example, Christianity provides the rules of the Ten Commandments, and the comfort of the psalms, but also a system of percieving reality; you, the world, and all that is beyond it that cannot be otherwise fathomed.

I speak specifically of Christianity, but other religious beliefs maintain this aspect as well; for the Fideist, once the initial step of accepting their religious belief has occurred it may become more evident and more obviously true than anything else known or believed, for by it all other truths may be defined and accepted.

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