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The Three Most Important Ideas from Faith, Reason, and Revelation
The Three Most Important Ideas from Faith, Reason, and Revelation
By Tony Minnick
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
~St. Ignatius
Junior Theology was my first religion class that really delved into world issues and philosophy, and also asked me to challenge what I place my faith in. It has been my favorite theology class due to the many interesting topics we have covered and the method used to tie them into our relationship with God.
The most important idea that we learned early on in the semester is the “unexamined life is not worth living.” I never fully reflected on this phrase from St. Ignatius until this year, and it has become a theme of my life. I examined the way that I think, reflecting on why I choose where to sit down in the classroom on the first day of school. I examined the way I learn, by learning time and again how to correctly answer a snail question. I examined my relationship with my parents, siblings, and friends. I examined the way I speak with the Right Speech Experiment. Finally, I thoroughly examined my religious Faith in God and was able to realize that I do not accept everything my Church teaches. This examination has made my Faith so much stronger. I believe in the things that matter to me and recognize the need for God in my life, making my life much more spiritual and religiously exciting. We used many historical stories like Plato’s Allegory in the Cave and The Blind Men and the Elephant to show the importance of examination. My life is more complete when I think about the decisions and actions I take, and the reflections I do make me a more spiritual man for others.
The second most important idea from the course was the study of the “problem of evil”. The “problem of evil”, and how to deal with it, has always been a classic philosophical issue. C.S. Lewis said that if God is all powerful and all good, then he would remove all imperfections from the world; but sin and death do exist, and so God must not exist. The problem was addressed in six diverse ways this semester. St. Augustine’s idea of evil as a privation of goodness helped to understand and Rabbi Kushner said the real question to ask is “Why to good things happen to people at all?” I found these ideas extremely important because everyone experiences the problem of evil. If you have ever lost a loved one like me, you find yourself asking how could this happen to me. Rabbi Kushner’s idea helped me the to answer the “problem of evil” best. If we acknowledge all of the good God gives us, it becomes easier to understand that God’s blessings are everywhere, even if some things seem unfair in our perspective.
The third important idea I focused on was the general concept of the existence of God. This idea was explored through the section on Wonder & Awe, the challenges to Faith, and the section on Apologetics. I reflected on my love of music in the Wonder & Awe section and decided that the passion and honest emotion that overcomes me during certain musical experiences cannot just be the simple firing of neurons in my brain. I am certain that something unexplainable is at work when the music overcomes me. This feeling gives God existence in my life. By learning about atheism and the challenges to Faith from science and known scholars, I had reason to question the existence of God myself. I reflected on these arguments and decided that it is not foolish to place my Faith in a higher power, it is a crutch that gives meaning in my life. In the last chapter of the semester, we studied teleology and apologetics, two studies that try to effectively explain the existence of God. The Anthropic principle helped me most. I cannot imagine the world we live in without believing in some kind of creator. The odds that everything occurred by chance are so small that they are dismissible in my opinion. The intricacy and perfection in our world are explanation for the existence of God.
Questions or Comments? Email me at jamntm@charter.net
Return to my Junior Faith Homepage
The source for these ideas is Faith, Reason, And Revelation.
