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When a scientist set out to prove or disprove a hypothesis he does so not in blind faith.
He will have formulated his hypothesis with a certain probability factor in mind, ie he will set out to test an assumption based on reasonable evidence.
This evidence can be previous research results or simple observation.
Thus a scientist works with both reason and faith in the outcome.

Faith- unless it is an extreme case of religious fanaticism which really has very little to do with faith- is based on weighing up probabilities.
For me it also means to keep a reasonably open mind. To be sure of a negative, you have to disprove something first. The same of course goes for a positive outcome.

I am not sure about my faith or what I believe in. At least my faith doesn't sit neatly with any religion which is on offer. Religion itself is not reasonable to me because it is dogmatic and unreasonable in its claim to teach the one and only truth.

But religion, thankfully, is not the same as faith.That is what reason tells me.
I can have faith in a lot of things. For instance I believe the saying which says' when one door shuts, another one opens.'
I believe in the saying that ' you reap what you sow'.
My beliefs are based on experience and observation. And I base my hope and faith on these.
I also believe that there is a universal truth. Universal it must be, because truth is absolute. Without contradiction.

I know a few people who say they absolutely KNOW, not believe,but KNOW, that God exists.
They claim to know from personal experience . Who am I to say that they can't know, that they can only believe and hope. They have based their faith on reason. They appear to have good reasons.
But again, like scientific research, you more often than not find evidence for whatever you are looking for. Because you design your experiment in such a way that it will only allow answers to very particular questions. And the experimenter is bias!

If you set out to find God, or the truth, then you will find something which may or may not be interpreted as evidence of his existence.
If you set out to disprove the existence of God, you will find answers to suit your agenda.

Faith and reason most definitely do not exclude one another. In fact, reason is often used to explain faith. Take someone with a highly scientific, analytic mind. A mathematician. His world is one of order, of regularity, of patterns, of predictability. Its complex yet at the same time simple as all parts are interconnected.
Our natural world is a reflection of this order. Complex, interconnected, predictable,one part out of order will effect the overall equilibrium.
There are many famous scientists who saw this as evidence of an existence of a God. To them it seemed or seems improbable that such perfect ' order' does not have a creator behind it.
( Isaak Newton to mention one!)

I have argued that faith are not mutually exclusive by saying that faith has a reasonable basis. Had I set out to find arguments against this I probably would have found those,too !

You see what I mean?! There are endless ways to search and interpret the truth. The only thing that is sure is that the truth is out there . One truth that applies to all. Whatever it is.

Learn more about this author, Colette Duval.
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