FAITH & REASON

Faith & Reason

Are faith and reason mutually exclusive? Is faith “Samson with his eyes put out” and reason “Darwin with a magnifying glass”? Surely Faith and Reason are the two pillars of all enduring establishment. For how could Samson understand what he was doing without reason? And how could Darwin believe what his eyes were seeing without faith? Thus both these men leaned on these two pillars of human society, for without faith there can be no reason.

But will Samson and Darwin ever truly see eye to eye? Did they have the same species of faith and reason? Did Samson because of his super-human strength reason he must be evolving into some new creature in the same way Darwin had faith that the adaptive finches on the Galapagos would naturally ‘evolve’ into different creatures? Surely Samson, after studying the fact of his great strength, concluded no such thing. And how did Darwin arrive at his conclusion? The answer is that both had a different basis and method of reasoning. Samson begins with God. Darwin begins with himself – man.

Even when blinded, Samson interpreted the facts in terms of the true and living triune God who created them. But Darwin the naturalist could only interpret the facts in terms of the god of the Deists. His god only started nature, but left it to its own devices. Thus both Samson and Darwin reasoned and exercised faith, but only according to their presuppositions about God and creation. Darwin’s conclusions were different to Samson’s because Darwin’s god had handed creation over to time and chance.

Therefore the two main supports in the temple of Darwin’s “absent landlord” are a failing faith and a rickety reason; (not to be confused with the faith and reason of Biblical Christianity). Therefore it stands to reason Darwinism will fall at the hands of a strengthened Christianity. Yes, many “Christians” have been taken captive and have been blinded by Darwinism’s highly speculative regime. But remember how Samson brought down the establishment that had taken him captive and had blinded him: “‘O LORD God… strengthen me, I pray…’ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple… And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on all the lords and all the people who were in it.” Judges 16:28-30. 

Yes, Samson died along with the rest. But, that was not the end of it. For, Jesus spoke of the future “resurrection of life, and… of condemnation” (John 5:29). Samson belongs to the former. The testimony to this future physical raising of all who have died is the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago.

Dear reader, faith and reason live forever in perfect harmony in Jesus Christ who is God and man in one divine Person. Those who repent of their sins and believe in His Gospel are members of the new humanity, not through “blind evolutionary process,” but by the same Spirit who gave Samson his great strength. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature…” 2 Corinthians 5:17a.