TomNaegeleBlogs

It’s often said that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. If this age-old adage holds true, we may be in for another bloody French Revolution. Worship of reason was the inspiration for that most terrible event, and apparently we still haven’t received the memo. Just yesterday did this writer see a bumper sticker that read, “In reason we trust.”

Now why can’t we worship at the altar of human reason? Realistically speaking, the worship of reason is ridiculous because it’s impossible. Man is not an exclusively logical being–God made us with feelings and emotions. To prove how silly is the worship of reason, one must simply point out that even its most stringent worshipers are extremely unfaithful. Who can claim to go through life without emotion influencing their reason?

It has been rightly said that were man absolutely logical, he would become either angelic or demonic depending upon the goodness or badness of his first principles. Will worshipers of reason claim an angelic or demonic nature? One hopes not, but the point is that no man can be absolutely exclusively reasonable. Man can and does become very reasonable, but only when he has something guiding his reason.

And what could that guiding light be but faith in God? He Who created us can alone guide us. Without God there is only unreasonable confusion, but with a faith-illumined intellect there is nothing but reasonable order. To trust in human reason is extremely unreasonable because it forces out the entire purpose of reason. God blessed us with the gift of reason (which properly defined is the ability to understand things and their causes) in order to lead us to the first cause of reason–Himself.

So let’s keep our trust in Him. He hasn’t failed us yet.