Faith and reason – facts and myths the rationality of catholic faith

Abstract

Man has always lived in a world of myths. His imagined convictions about various aspects of reality, incompatible with the objective state of affairs have shaped not only his perception of the world, but also his attitudes and specific actions.

The aim of the article is to demonstrate the false nature of three widespread myths related to the relationship between faith and reason. The first of them refers to the alleged natural contradiction which is supposed to exist between knowledge proper to faith and rational knowledge. This myth is also the source of another two. One of them proclaims the impossibility of getting to know God naturally, knowledge which would only be reserved for faith, while the other, being the aftermath of Protestant fideism, reduces faith to the human emotional and experiential sphere.

In confrontation with the aforementioned myths, three important truths, which are an integral element of Catholic doctrine, have been shown: the unity of rational knowledge and knowledge through faith, which, although in a different way, lead to the same goal, namely truth; opportunities to know God naturally and the rationality of the act of faith, which in its essence is not an experience, but the reception of the revealed truth as a result of our free choice, to use the classic definition of St. Augustine.