Man thinks he is brilliant. In fact we live in an anti-intellectual age where man really doesn’t know anything. Here’s why. If we live in an exclusively material universe, there really is no conscious intellect, nor is there any truth for it to comprehend, or facts that exist beyond the mechanics of material functions. There is no mind, only a brain which is just a chemical and material mechanism. Neo-Darwinism has killed reason. There are no great philosophical thoughts or truths beyond the material to contemplate.
To overcome that, some are willing to employ their concept of "faith." That allows man to speculate and seek something nobler than the non-volitional chemical and electric impulses in the brain. And that is also anti-intellectual, for to them faith is a blind, if noble, leap. So we hear, "You cannot prove faith, if there were a reason for it, it would not be faith." This makes faith nothing more than superstition.
Compare that to the profound and awesome information in the Bible about a Being, a Mind that has always existed, who designed and created all the complexity of the universe down to each of the one hundred trillion cells in your body, every one of which contains a six foot long coil of coded information spelling out assembly instructions to make all of your individual physical characteristics. This Creator being holy, has established noble, righteous, and absolute principles by which to live in relationship with one another, and ways to have fellowship with Him.
The Bible gives reasons to accept all of that. This says faith is based on reason. It is not just an ephemeral feeling or wishing, or supposing. Too many religious people treat it so, but that also destroys reason. There would be as many faiths as there are individual preferences or beliefs. Thus no one real truth to reason from. One can "believe" that turtles became Einstein and that pigs have wings.
Contrast that to what the Bible says about faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). God is contemplated by faith because we have not seen him, but there are assurances, and information producing conviction. That is not preposterous. You probably believe in Iraq, but most of you have not seen Iraq. "Oh, but," one says, "I have seen pictures of Iraq." No, you have seen pictures someone told you were of Iraq. But based on the source and convincing nature of the evidence, you believe in Iraq. Without having seen Iraq you accept its existence by faith. Faith in God requires the exercise of the intellect in dealing with the information God has given in his word and in his creation.
For instance, the Greek word which describes faith in the passage above and which is translated "conviction," means, "Such a conviction as is produced in the mind by the demonstration of a problem, after which we see from it that the thing cannot but be true." Faith is not a whimsical supposition. Biblical faith claims to be so intellectually supported that it patently true. Again, the word is defined, "A demonstration of the certainty of a thing by sure arguments and indubitable reasons." Aristotle used the term for a mathematical demonstration. Facts truly perceived and applied produce and stand behind true faith. Iraq exists. God is.
Darwinism, being totally material, destroys any ground of absolute and moral truth. It is thus anti-intellectual. The Bible on the other hand calls upon us to examine its convincing information. Properly perceived and applied it leads to faith, a conviction based on evidence. It is profoundly intellectual and thus appeals to and provides things for the spirit and mind of man.
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