Is Belief In God Reasonable?

“Profane men think that religion rests only on opinion, and, therefore, that they may not believe foolishly, or on slight grounds, desire and insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired. But I answer that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.”

~John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

The evergreen topic of dissension between believers and nonbelievers has been and will always be reason and relevance for, and faith in, God.

Between religions, even, there are incessant arguments and philosophical and theological debates over nuances of God. Moreover, the Christian faith, the church and its denominations, is split in numerous chapters of belief in the differentiating minutia of all things that may be true about God and faith and, therefore, held up for disputation.

By this, there is the foretaste of indifference and the aftertaste of competition on all things of divinity.

But what is proposed by Calvin above makes the issue irrefutable—indifference and competition will become silence; a retort may be considered, yet it will be discounted.

The Irrefutability Of Belief In God

The testimony of the Spirit, as read through the biblical Word, it is argued, is superior to human reason—God may not be ‘explained’; God, in fact, has censured that all things of belief are to be secured by faith, and by faith alone.

God may not be known unless by deliberate means of belief—the state of deciding an allegiance of heart and mind, in this case absent of visible evidence to support the decision. That may be faith.

The reasonable man and woman will think the decision for faith is madness; thus, we need to remember that this God has revealed himself to the believer in irrefutable, most relevant ways. Nobody believes in something untrue or irrelevant to them, personally.

If we may consider that belief in God is irrefutable—given the majority of human beings do actually believe—then we might find a test for true belief.

Truth Is The Friend-Of-God’s Ally

One of the best ways to challenge anybody regarding their God-faith or their rejection of God or faith, altogether, is by the majestic test of truth.

Truly, the person who is called a friend-of-God has learned to love the truth; their belief is, therefore, set by the truth in the manner of understanding and the acceptance of life as it attends. And balancing such love of truth is grace which tempers the oft-hard-crudeness of truth remitted in loveless ways.

It may be no coincidence, the person disbelieving God, and rejecting faith, wants no part in such grace-evident truth—they might typically kick-against-the-pricks of life, dispelling the sense of natural justice in life as unfair. They blame others for their own mistakes and when others are at fault they find such things unforgivable and grudges are borne. This is the character of the unregenerate person.

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The existence of God, and faith in God, are undeniable in this: the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.

And if that isn’t enough, try this: we have. Yes, by the fact we possess life, things, hopes, and love, demands we have a Provider; the fact that we have necessitates faith for handling, with aplomb, all these possessions. The Provider—God—has engineered life to require faith.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.