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From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Thomas Aquinas on Reason
Message-ID: <3712@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Mar-84 19:35:37 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3712
Posted: Sat Mar 31 19:35:37 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Mar-84 19:35:37 EST
References: <1817@utcsstat.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 41

Aquinas did not say that you cannot arrive at faith by reason. (at
least in the Summa, which I just read last week). Rather, he
found that Christianity was in profound accord with the logical
principles of Aristotle.

Indeed, he defined humanity (following Aristotle, of course) as
the being with an Intellectual Will (or soul) which is
characterised by the ability to reason. The proper function of
man, for Aquinas, is reasoning.

However, Aquinas, being no fool, discovered that *after* he had
found that Christianity was in profound accord with The Philosopher
(Aristotle) he was left with some inconsistencies. His faith
said one thing was true and his reason said another. what 
would this mean? It would mean that either his faith was incorrect,
or he had made a slip in his reasoning.

It is hard to say that one's faith is incorrect. it is pretty well
spelled out, and the opportunity for original research is remarkably
small (though in anoter sense it is your full potential.) You
don't derive new truths through faith in general, you merely discover
old ones which were true. Therefore, it is more logical to assume
that you had made a mistake in your reasoning. Therefore, Aquinas
said that when faith and reason conflict, reason must bow to faith
because reason can be flawed.

I think that he is making a serious mistake here. I think that when reason
and faith conflict you should have faith bow to reason. 

But this is not the same thing as saying that Aquinas said that you
cannot get to faith by reason. You can not get all of Christianity
by reason alone, he agrees, but his position is that if you do not
get to Christianity by way of your reason then you have made a logical
error.

-- 
Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura

	"Capitalism is a lot of fun. If you aren't having fun, then
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