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Faith and rationality are two ideologies that exist in varying degrees of conflict or compatibility. Rationality is based on reason or facts. Faith is belief in inspiration, revelation, or authority. The word ''faith'' usually refers to a belief that is held with lack of, in spite of or against reason or evidence, while another position holds that it can refer to belief based upon a degree of evidential warrant. Although the words ''faith'' and ''belief'' are sometimes erroneously conflated and used as synonyms, ''faith'' properly refers to a particular type (or subset) of ''belief,'' as defined above. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of views regarding the relationship between faith and rationality: #Rationalism holds that truth should be determined by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma, tradition or religious teaching. #Fideism holds that faith is necessary, and that beliefs may be held without any evidence or reason and even in conflict with evidence and reason. The Catholic Church also has taught that faith and reason can and must work together, in the Papal encyclical letter issued by Pope John Paul II, ''Fides et Ratio'' ("() Faith and Reason"). ==Relationship between faith and reason== From at least the days of the Greek Philosophers, the relationship between faith and reason has been hotly debated. Plato argued that knowledge is simply memory of the eternal. Aristotle set down rules by which knowledge could be discovered by reason. Rationalists point out that many people hold irrational beliefs, for many reasons. There may be evolutionary causes for irrational beliefs — irrational beliefs may increase our ability to survive and reproduce. Or, according to Pascal's Wager, it may be to our advantage to have faith, because faith may promise infinite rewards, while the rewards of reason are seen by many as finite. One more reason for irrational beliefs can perhaps be explained by operant conditioning. For example, in one study by B. F. Skinner in 1948, pigeons were awarded grain at regular time intervals regardless of their behaviour. The result was that each of pigeons developed their own idiosyncratic response which had become associated with the consequence of receiving grain. Believers in faith — for example those who believe salvation is possible through faith alone — frequently suggest that everyone holds beliefs arrived at by faith, not reason. The belief that the universe is a sensible place and that our minds allow us to arrive at correct conclusions about it, is a belief we hold through faith. Rationalists contend that this is arrived at because they have observed the world being consistent and sensible, not because they have faith that it is. Beliefs held "by faith" may be seen existing in a number of relationships to rationality: * Faith as underlying rationality: In this view, all human knowledge and reason is seen as dependent on faith: faith in our senses, faith in our reason, faith in our memories, and faith in the accounts of events we receive from others. Accordingly, faith is seen as essential to and inseparable from rationality. According to René Descartes, rationality is built first upon the realization of the absolute truth "I think therefore I am", which requires no faith. All other rationalizations are built outward from this realization, and are subject to falsification at any time with the arrival of new evidence. * Faith as addressing issues beyond the scope of rationality: In this view, faith is seen as covering issues that science and rationality are inherently incapable of addressing, but that are nevertheless entirely real. Accordingly, faith is seen as complementing rationality, by providing answers to questions that would otherwise be unanswerable. * Faith as contradicting rationality: In this view, faith is seen as those views that one holds despite evidence and reason to the contrary. Accordingly, faith is seen as pernicious with respect to rationality, as it interferes with our ability to think, and inversely rationality is seen as the enemy of faith by interfering with our beliefs. * Faith and reason as essential together: This is the Catholic view that faith without reason leads to superstition, while reason without faith leads to nihilism and relativism. * Faith as based on warrant: In this view some degree of evidence provides warrant for faith. "To explain great things by small." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Faith and rationality」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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