ADE,

You are rapidly on your way to becoming another W.

Thank you for the compliment.

So my challenge is on Faith, then, is does not overthrow reason; it perfects it. Again, classic French bullshit.

Out of context, perhaps it is merde. But within the context of a post quoting Newman and refering to “Him,” I didn’t expect to be mistaken for Zawahiri.

I like the elements of faith that you describe, realizing of course that it is only a partial list. I guess my points about faith and reason are these (notice the difference in brevity between late night and early morning posts):

1. There are true statements that cannot be proven. Reason itself has identified this limitation. To know these unprovable truths requires faith.

2. Reason can tell us what is right, but cannot tell us why we should act rightly. Thus knowledge is one thing, virtue another. Because actions count, we need faith, both ourselves and for society.

3. At the end of the day, faith and reason cannot be incompatible. That is why reason is our most important tool for distinguishing between true faiths and false ones, and why the abandonment of reason by “submission” to some creed is the favorite gambit of false prophets.

Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn’t. But there’s very little about it that’s French.

Latin, maybe.

L3