Mortimer J. Adler on Faith and Reason

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Mortimer J. Adler on Faith and Reason

"I suspect that most of the individuals who have religious faith are content with blind faith. They feel no obligation to understand what they believe. They may even wish not to have their beliefs disturbed by thought. But if God in whom they believe created them with intellectual and rational powers, that imposes upon them the duty to try to understand the creed of their religion. Not to do so is to verge on superstition."

- Mortimer J. Adler

Mortimer J. Adler, "A Philosopher’s Religious Faith," in Kelly James-Clark (ed.), Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of Eleven Leading Thinkers (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1993), p. 207.

4 comments :

Unknown said...: Dr. Adler's aptitude for accurately conveying truth has once again hit the proverbial nail on the head.; Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM GMT+1
Matt said...: What is that verse about the stones crying out? If we don't say it, someone will.; Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 3:45:00 PM GMT+1
Seth said...: Dr. Adler gets it right again. There is no reason for Christians to live with blind faith.; Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 5:40:00 PM GMT+1
Freddie Plato said...: I have just finished reading Dr. Adler's splendid book 'How to Think about God' in which he argues quite correctly that before one asks what God is like he should determine whether, by the weight of the evidence, or beyone a reasonable doubt, that God exists. However, I would argue that Dr. Adler goes a bit too far in arguing that religion can shed no light, for the philosopher, on the question what God is like. By the same sort of reasoning mentioned above it would seem that if one can establlish the authenticity and accuracy of the Bible to a high degree of accuracy he is justified in then asking what light it can shed on the question 'what is God like'.; Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 4:05:00 AM GMT