Grant Welge
Junior Theology
January 5, 2009

The Three Most Important Ideas From Faith, Reason, & Revelation
One of the most important things that I learned from this Faith, Reason, & Revelation course was Socrates' idea that "the unexamined life is not worth living." This idea is important because if we do not take time to examine our lives, we will know nothing about ourselves or why things are the way they are. By examining our lives we create a map for ourselves to help guide our lives and actions. Also, we can recognize our sins and wrongdoings and correct them. We take control of our lives when we examine them. In the story of the Delphic Oracle, the Oracle deemed Socrates the wisest man alive because he knew that he did not know everything. No one can never know everything, but examining our lives helps us have a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Plato's Allegory of the Cave is often associated with the unexamined life. In the story there are prisoners chained in a cave and all they can see is there shadows on the wall resulting from a fire burning behind them. They think that the shadows are the real things, and know nothing else. When one of the prisoners is dragged screaming and flailing out into the light and sees the truth, the prisoners wants to ignore it and return back into the cave. After the prisoner finally accepts the truth, he wants to go tell the others but is killed for telling them something that they do not want to hear. This story suggests that we should question our lives by examining them. The Five Foundational Lessons can also help examine and guide our lives. The first lesson says that we are necessarily and unavoidably making decisions all the time. The second says that we see the world through "colored lenses" and so we are biased. The third says the value judgment we make determines our actions. The fourth says that any change in our underlying beliefs cannot help but change our lives. The fifth lesson says that the most significant decisions we make in life will be faith decisions. We can use these lessons to help us examine our lives and decide what kind of person we want to be.


This image is from http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/Victorian/cave.jpg

The second important idea from Faith, Reason, & Revelation is the Human Condition. The human condition is the situation in which every human being finds himself or herself by virtue of being human. The human condition is often associated with the question "Why are the way we are?" It deals with the characteristics of humans that are universally true for all humans. For example, all humans are touched by the three effects of original sin: sonsupiscence, wounded intellect, and death. Concupiscence means that even though human beings desire goodness, we are mysteriously attracted toward evil. Wounded intellect is the belief that everyone's thinking has been damaged by the effects of original sin. Aristotle compared humans to ships, saying that there are two kinds of people: people who can steer and control their lives and people who just drift away without control of what happens in their lives. This idea is connected to the idea of having a map and examining our lives. A major part of the human condition is the problem of evil. People often wonder how evil can exist in the world if God is all-good and all-powerful. Many people struggle with this concept and sadly many lose faith because of the problem of evil. A final part of the human condition is the Christian belief that there are four last last things that every person faces: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

A third important thing that I learned during this course deals with the faith/Faith section. Faith and faith are two different things. Faith (lower-case f) means trust and belief. This type of faith would be the kind of faith that most of us have in our parents, for example. True faith is strong trust or belief in something even when we are uncertain. Our text gave the Catholic definition for faith as an intellectual assent to a loving God and His revelation. The four characteristics of biblical faith are that Faith is a loving trust, it is a lifelong challenge, there will be times of doubt, and risk is involved. Part of this section dealt with the four Cardinal Virtues: Justice, Temperance, Prudence, and Fortitude, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. Faith is the median between Radicalism and Nihilism. radicalism is beliefs but no reason and Nihilism is reason but no beliefs, so faith is beliefs supported by reason. Catholics believe that blind faith is foolish and irresponsible. There are seven characteristics of the Catholic description of Faith: Faith is a grace, a virtue, a risk, is certain, is reasonable, seeks understanding, and requires a free human response. This section helped me recognize where I have great faith and where I do not have great faith. I found this section interseting because it helped me realize the difference between faith and Faith and see what I can do to strengthen both my faith and Faith.