{"id":57312,"date":"2021-07-19T10:30:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T10:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk\/Education-Old\/?page_id=57312"},"modified":"2021-07-19T10:30:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T10:30:19","slug":"is-it-rational-to-believe-in-god","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk\/Education-Old\/our-faith\/learning-about-our-faith\/why-we-believe\/is-it-rational-to-believe-in-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Rational to Believe in God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Is It Rational To Believe In God?<\/h1>\n

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\u201cThe Truth will set you free\u201d (John 8:32)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of our contemporaries are sceptical about whether one can rationally embrace faith in Christ, or whether it can make practical sense to follow His teachings in our lives. If you are exploring Catholic faith for the first time, or even as a practicing Catholic, you might wonder if Catholic faith can really be rational and relevant. Below, we address a few common worries about the rationality of embracing Catholic faith.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t faith just wishful thinking? <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Mark Twain, faith is \u201cbelieving what you know ain\u2019t so\u201d. However, that\u2019s not the way in which Catholic understand faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em> (CCC<\/em>) (433; 150) describes faith as an act of the whole person (i.e. her mind and will), which is a \u201cpersonal adherence of God to man\u201d. Faith also has a particular intellectual component (CCC<\/em> 150), because it involves belief in truths which God has freely chosen to reveal about Himself and about his dealings with the world. We wouldn\u2019t know these truths if God had not chosen to reveal them to us. However, since God is perfectly knowledgeable and truthful, we can be confident that what He tells us is true. So when a Catholic believes something through faith, he or she doesn\u2019t claim to believe this through her natural intellectual abilities. Rather, the revelation of God\u2019s truth, and the human response to it in faith, are entirely God\u2019s gift.<\/p>\n

But how can anyone rationally believe that God exists, or has revealed Himself through Christ?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In his\u00a0Letter to the<\/em> Romans<\/em>, St. Paul indicates that creation provides evidence for the existence of God. St. Paul writes that \u201cEver since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made\u201d (Romans<\/em> 1:20). The Church has interpreted this to mean that using our natural powers of reason, we can be confident that God exists (CCC<\/em> 31-5). It\u2019s important to remember that the Church doesn\u2019t mean that God\u2019s existence is a hypothesis that can be investigated by all branches of human enquiry. In particular, some people make the mistake of expecting that science<\/em> might discover God, just as scientists discover new planets by observation, or infer the existence of sub-atomic particles through experimentation. However, since God is immaterial (see John<\/em> 4:24) it would be wrong to expect science to discover Him in this way; although scientific discoveries might lend weight to philosophical reasons to think that God exists, such as when current cosmology seems to indicate that the Universe began to exist.<\/p>\n

Historically, Catholics have often interpreted St. Paul to mean that there are powerful philosophical<\/em> arguments for the existence of God. Many of the most brilliant philosophers, such as St. Augustine, St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bl. John Duns Scotus, Descartes and Leibniz developed arguments for God\u2019s existence. In the past few decades, many academic philosophers have revived their intellectual legacy by defending persuasive arguments to show that the concept of God is coherent, and which argue that God\u2019s existence can explain many features of our world. Some features which philosophers have argued are well-explained by God\u2019s existence include the existence of finite beings, the order inherent in the Universe, the existence of objective moral duties, our knowledge of those duties and the existence of consciousness.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Christ\u2019s claim to reveal God, there is also publically available evidence (CCC<\/em> 156). In this case, the evidence comes primarily from the historical witness of the first disciples, as recorded in the Gospels. The disciples had first hand evidence of Jesus\u2019 teaching. Through his conduct, fulfillment of prophecy, performance of miracles and particularly His resurrection from the dead, they saw clear signs that Jesus taught with God\u2019s authority. Nowadays, many Christian academics who study Scripture professionally have defended the historical reliability of the Gospel stories about Christ, at least in their essential outline.<\/p>\n

The publically available evidence for the existence of God and His revelation in Christ is, of course, complicated and controversial. But here are a few books written by Christian scholars which discuss the evidence for God\u2019s existence and His revelation in Christ at a relatively accessible level:<\/p>\n