@AugustineBrother,
I agree that reason can and logically so, lead you to believe in a sentient being who is 'greater' than us.
However, that same reason cannot lead you to believe in any particular God. There is not one of us who, not knowing anything about any particular religion could reason their way into that religion.
No child I know of that was never taught the gospel of christ and all other aspects/features of biblical 'truth' ever came into this knowledge without being told about the bible and that specific dogma/truth.
Once you are told these things, is it then 'reasonable to believe'.
That's an interesting question. We might want to first define reason to go that deep, but my cyber ink is running out, so you'll have to humour me on the definition.
You have to peel back the layers. When I was told about the gospel, it seemed reasonable to me. But only because I signed off on a whole slew of presumptions. Like believing that we are all sinners. Before you go off on asking me if I don't believe in sin, yes I do. I believe in evil as WE define it.
So, with that in mind, the issue is believing in sin as defined by the bible. The next issue is believing that someone named Jesus lived and died and was resurrected. There is also the belief in a God who commands wholesale slaughter and then preaches love (including in the old testament).
There are a whole poop load of other things that are presumed that are part of the belief in a specific God. And so many of them cannot be reasoned.
You can believe we all do evil. I believe that's reasonable by looking at our own behaviour and others, but you cannot reason the idea that one man sinned and therefore we are all sinners. That is either fact or not and cannot be derived from observation. You have to have faith that that is true.
A-Bro - believe me when I say that this whole issue of 'reasonable faith' is completely, utterly, totally conflated by the idea of:
a being that is 'greater' than us.
As I said, this is reasonable. We are creators. Animals are creators. It stands to reason that it is LOGICALLY possible (but not necessarily so) that there is another creator.
But any analysis further from that is futile, by reason, in proving all of the things said in religious writings about God and his personality and supposed behaviour.
And if we really want to get into the weeds, we can actually use our reason to argue against such a creature. I intimated at it earlier in the contradictions posed by its command for wholesale slaughter and then telling us to love one another.
And believe me again, I've heard all the gymnastic gyrations, worthy of Gold in any Rationalizing Olympics, that try to make these ideas sympathetic with each other and it just doesn't work.
Here I applaud the Christian who says that philosophy and current moral trends try to doubt that morality exists, that its relative. Yet the irony doesn't escape me either that they do not take their own advice when it comes to analysis of their own God! I understand why though..they simply cannot be wrong.
Christianity, religion is not reasonable in its dogmas, but perfectly reasonable in positing a 'higher' power.
So, other than the existence of a higher power (whatever that might mean) do you have an example of Christianity that can be deduced by reason?
