I think there are two pathways to truth, Faith and Logic. The human mind evolved to want to know and when the mind doesn’t know, it hasn’t evolved to say I don’t know. It’s usually funny to watch people give the wrong answers or try to give a wrong answer when they could have just said, I don’t know. But that’s how the mind is, there must always be an explanation and this is how we came to faith.
At times, once we hit the limit of logic, we invoke faith. Sometimes we invoke faith even without trying to use logic, because at that point faith is easier.
Our ancestors, even up to some of the famous scientists use faith to come to truth. The history of scientific discovery has always had a boundary, a limit to what can be logically explained and people tend to attribute that unknown to some sort of supernatural power, or God. One very famous quote attributed to Isaac Newton is this
Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it can not explain who sets the planet in motion.
Isaac Newton has all these equations to explain planetary motion and gravity and all that. But when he hits the limit of his scientific knowledge, when his equations can not logically explain the phenomenon he’s observing, he invoked faith. Ptolemy, a brilliant scientist of his time also attributed some of the things he doesn’t understand to some sort of supernatural power, here’s a famous quote of his
When I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia
The above examples are to show that even the most brilliant minds in history use Faith to come to their truth at some point.
We do it too, almost on a daily basis. If I asked who is your father, you immediately point to him. But how did you come by that truth? Logic or Faith. 99% of the time, it’s by faith. You just believe he’s your dad. 99% of the time people have not carried out a DNA test to prove paternity. That’s coming to the truth by Faith.
Also imagine a stone age man, who knew nothing about the heavenly bodies seeing an asteroid hit the earth. He has to invoke faith at some point. Imagine an early human after having his first dream, or his first feeling of Déjà vu, his mind will want to give an explanation and when it can’t, he will invoke faith.
On the other hand, Logical Truth is the truth you come by usually by using the scientific method. Our best way to come to truth today is using the scientific method. The method is usually as follows
- Ask a Question:
- Do Background Research
- Construct a Hypothesis
- Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
- Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
- Communicate Your Results
As you can see, it’s easier to come to truth by faith than coming to truth by logic.
Faith and Logic usually clash when people want others to live and do and behave a certain way because of a truth they arrived at by faith. So when do you use Faith and when do you use Logic. A lot of people will discard truth by faith at the first glance, even though I understand why that is and I tend to agree with them to an extent, I still think coming to truth by faith has its place. If your truth is personal, and doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on another person, then it doesn’t really matter if you come to that truth by faith or by logic. For example, who your sister or father or mother or family member is personal to you. You can either decide to carry out a DNA test to prove it or you can continue living by that truth. On the other hand if for example a crime is committed and there needs to be proof that X is actually your father, then we have to use the best way we know to come by truth today, Logic.
I also see (and I am guilty of it myself) people trying to convince someone by Logic that a truth they came by using Faith is actually false. This is usually harder than it seems. One would think everyone should prefer Logical Truth to Faith Truth, but that’s not usually the case. Because of several factors some of which may include indoctrination and/or cognitive dissonance, people don’t usually tend to want to let go of their truth. This is where the scientific method trumps faith. Faith encourages you to hold on to that which is truth, to protect the truth at all costs. Logic encourages you to test your ideas and truths every once in a while to see if they still hold firm. And if a previously known truth was found to not hold grounds anymore, it should be discarded and not protected at all costs.
In conclusion, we must all strive to come to truth by the best means possible. Which is using Logic. But coming to truth by faith is not all doom and gloom either, we just have to know that truth by faith has its limitations.
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