I wrote a piece a little bit ago on “Sense of place and the ’08 election,” riffing a bit on a Peggy Noonan column and a Beldar blog post. It occurred to me a moment ago that someone should tell Peggy Noonan not to worry quite so much: whatever else they may be, both Delaware and Alaska are most definitely places.
Monthly Archives: August 2008
For a 90° turn: meditation on faith and reason
OK, I’m going into overload here; I have to shift gears or I’m going to fry the engine, and besides, I have other things I need to be thinking about. So, while I will no doubt have more to say about John McCain, Sarah Palin, and their detractors before long, I’m going to take a deep breath and send my brain in a different direction: specifically, the issue of the relationship between faith and reason.
One of our best guides in this regard is St. Augustine, in whose writings this issue looms large. It’s only to be expected that this should be so; as a philosopher, he is committed to reasoning his way to truth, but as a Christian he must accept some things as true on faith rather than by his reason, and these two stances might seem incompatible. It’s a major part of Augustine’s task as a philosopher to reconcile these seeming opposites, to prove that Athens does indeed have fellowship with Jerusalem.
Before he can begin building his case, Augustine must define his terms. In doing so, he draws a sharp distinction between knowledge, which is the result of rational thought, and belief, or faith. Knowledge is “the rational cognizance of temporal things”; in other words, it is the understanding, brought about by reason, of the things of this world. Belief, by contrast, is a matter of “consenting to the truth of what is said.” Rather than being an act of the reason to discover something to be true, it is a decision of the will to accept something as true. However, the statement that faith is an act of the will rather than a product of human reason does not automatically make faith opposed to reason. This is a critical point; otherwise, reason and faith are irreconcilable and the entire enterprise of Christian philosophy is in vain. Augustine offers several arguments to show that faith is indeed reasonable, and thus that faith and reason can and do complement each other.
The first point is that faith does not spring out of nothing, but out of rational thought.
For who cannot see that thinking is prior to believing? . . . it is yet necessary that everything which is believed should be believed after thought has preceded; although even belief itself is nothing less than to think with assent. . . . everybody who believes, thinks—both thinks in believing, and believes in thinking.
This means that faith is not antithetical to reason but a possible product of it; reason can lead to faith.
Augustine further argues that faith leads to knowledge, not merely belief. He draws this argument from Scripture, citing the words of Christ in John 17:3 (“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” ESV) and Matthew 7:7 (“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,” ESV). His point is,
One cannot speak of that being found which is believed without knowledge, nor does anyone become prepared to find God who does not first believe that which he is afterward to know.
The goal of faith, according to this interpretation, is to bring the believer to a point where it is possible to gain true knowledge of God, not simply to rest in believing things about God. Thus reason and faith complement each other in the quest for understanding.
The reason why this is so, according to Augustine, is that some truths are too big for the mind to comprehend them through reason alone. Citing Isaiah 7:9, he says,
We must first believe whatever great and divine matter we desire to understand.
Our minds are limited, and thus our reason cannot see all truths. Since reason lacks force to compel us to accept these truths, we can do so only by an act of the will.
As such an act isn’t grounded in our own reason, it must be based on authority external to ourselves. Augustine even declares,
For those who seek to learn great and hidden truths, authority alone opens the door.
As he sees it, while reason is higher and more fundamental than authority, authority must precede reason in operation, at least for human beings, in order to ensure that reason proceeds in the proper direction to reach truth. He sums up the relationship between the two by saying,
Authority demands faith, and prepares man for reason. Reason leads him on to knowledge and understanding.
For Augustine, then, the quest for understanding begins with faith in authority, which prepares the soul to use reason to gain understanding of that which is believed. This does not mean, however, that reason is “useless to authority; it helps in considering what authority is to be accepted.” This is very important to Augustine, because faith is worthless if it is misplaced. Those who place their faith in God are on the road to true understanding, because God, the creator of all, is the source of Truth Itself. Those who place their faith in a false authority, however, can never reach true understanding, because the foundation for their reason is flawed. Reason thus has an important part to play in finding a true authority to accept.
In Augustine’s understanding of the pursuit of truth, then, reason and faith are intermingled. Reason provides a basis for faith by determining which authority is worthy of acceptance. From that rational basis, the individual chooses to accept that authority as true. That authority in turn prepares the individual to seek understanding, and gives a foundation for the use of reason in that search. Thus reason and faith are integrated in the search for truth, keeping all of life together as a whole rather than splitting it in two.
It’s important to note here that for Augustine, a questioning faith is true faith because it is seeking to grow in understanding. That is the proper aim of faith, to apply reason to gain understanding of God and the things of God. While Augustine grants that those who fail to do so will still reach heaven, he does not believe that they are truly happy, for they are falling short of that for which they were made.
Is this really helpful, guys?
The bloggers over at PowerLine are quite negative on the Palin pick. Paul Mirengoff wrote, “I’m very disappointed that John McCain would put someone as inexperienced and lacking in foreign policy and national security background as Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency.” Why, because Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney have so much foreign-policy experience? Guys, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s kinda this big honkin’ landmass in between Alaska and the rest of the US—it’s called Canada, and it’s a foreign country, and it’s one of Alaska’s only two neighbors. The other is a little country called Russia (I think you might have heard of it). I don’t say that Gov. Palin is accustomed to going toe-to-toe with hostile foreign leaders, certainly, but then, it’s not like she’s Mike Huckabee‘s running mate; she’ll be understudying a guy who knows the field pretty well, and she’s a quick study. Trust Sen. McCain to bring her along on that score.Now, could we have done better in that regard from the GOP field? Sure. Six months ago, I wanted Condoleeza Rice on the ticket; you could also have picked someone like Richard Lugar. But you guys aren’t boosting anyone like that—you want a governor, and there are good reasons it should be so. If you get a governor, though, you’re not going to get much in the way of foreign-policy experience. (And incidentally, how much foreign-policy experience did Gov. Reagan have when he was elected 28 years ago, anyway?) In all honesty, I’m not sure how much that matters; it’s not Barack Obama’s foreign-policy inexperience that worries me, it’s his judgment. Where I think experience matters is in the practical details of governing, and having a sense for what works and what doesn’t; and there, though Gov. Palin doesn’t have long experience, she has highly successful experience, having accomplished quite a bit in a difficult political environment, working against her own party’s political machine. Where her inexperience abroad matters is in that sense of what’s possible and reasonable, and though she doesn’t have that, she can develop it.And honestly, given Secretary Rice’s track record over the last couple years, I think I might just prefer inexperience. (For whatever it might be worth, Johnathan Adler thinks much the same.)
And now the spin begins
as the Democrats try to neutralize the Palin pick. Charles Schumer is already claiming she takes the experience argument against Obama off the table, other Democrats are warning (in appropriately sepulchral tones) that she might be “a disaster”—one even dismissed her as “Geraldine Quayle.” For the latter, I think once America gets its first good look at Sarah Palin, I don’t think anyone will buy that; she’s bright, capable, and a quick study. What’s more, it isn’t quite true that she has no foreign-policy experience—remember, Alaska doesn’t border the US, it borders Canada and Russia. She certainly doesn’t measure up to Joe Biden in that respect, but that’s what the GOP ticket has John McCain for. And with all due respect, Sen. Schumer: don’t just look at the calendar, look at the accomplishments. That’s where the experience differential between Gov. Palin and Sen. Obama is very real.To go one step further, I think the Democrats are making a major mistake here. They’re trying to neutralize her with ridicule as a lightweight, hoping for the quick wipeout right out of the box, instead of treating her seriously; and while that would work if she were a lightweight, she isn’t, and she’s faced worse before. What this means is that, when she comes to the debate with Joe Biden, the expectations for her will be low, because after all, Sen. Biden is a vicious this, that and the other thing—and as George W. Bush found, she will find that low expectations can be a real help. She won’t need to “win” the debate with Sen. Biden to win the debate: all she’ll need to do is look respectable and not make a fool of herself, and the Democratic attack on her will go down like a house of cards. If in fact she stands up to Sen. Biden and performs well—as I’m convinced she will if the campaign staff prepare her properly—then the attacks on her will backfire in a big way. And if Sen. Biden has one of his “Uncle Joe” moments and she handles it well, she could flip him clean off the stage.
YES!!!!!! MCCAIN/PALIN ’08!
All right, I’m breaking my own self-imposed rule, but after all the hijinks played yesterday with http://www.mccainpalin.com/, I’m calling this good enough: it’s now firmly McCain-Palin 2008, declaring, “The Wait Is Over” and reads,
It’s Official!!! Congratulations Sarah Palin! We are pleased to announce that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate! Sarah Heath Palin is currently the Governor of Alaska and assumed office in 2006. In addition to being the first female Governor of Alaska, she has made history again as the first female Republican Vice Presidential running mate. We are confident Sarah Palin will make an excellent Vice Presidential candidate with John McCain, and we congratulate her on her impeccable record of public service and her recent selection as John McCain’s VP!
And indeed, here’s the press release from the McCain campaign confirming his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate!
WE DID IT!
HE DID IT!
MCCAIN/PALIN ’08!
CNN is reporting . . .
. . . that Gov. Sarah Palin is the pick. I’m going to wait for John McCain to say so himself before I go bonkers, but . . . yeah.Incidentally, I’ve been talking about Palin searches driving my traffic—well, I have half again as many hits already today as my blog’s previous high, and it’s only 11 am. It looks to me like a lot of this is people who’ve never heard of the woman and are now trying to figure out who she is and where she came from. Some of the highlights:
- Scads of people looking for “Sarah Palin church,” or some variant thereof. I told you, I don’t know anything about that.
- Several people looking for “Sarah Palin Seattle Seahawks,” which just made me laugh. My dream January: John McCain and Sarah Palin sworn in in D.C., and the ‘Hawks in the Super Bowl.
- One person looking for “sara palin firefly.” I have no idea what prompted that search, but it landed them here.
- A number of searches on “Sarah Palin Native American.” That’s her husband’s ancestry, not hers (she was born in Idaho), but I’m not surprised at the interest.
- We have people looking for dirt, with a few searches like “Sarah Palin, flaws” and “Sarah Palin skeletons.” There don’t appear to be any skeletons in her closet; you want to know what there is to know, negatively-speaking, read the CNN story—it’s all there.
- Which reminds me, maybe the person looking for “Palin closet” was looking for the same thing; otherwise, that bewilders me.
- I’ve also seen a bunch of people looking for “Sarah Palin wealthy,” or some variant thereof. Umm, no, she isn’t (though she’s not poor, either).
- Whoever’s looking for “Sarah Palin ACU rating” is going to be disappointed, since I don’t think governors have ACU ratings. Aren’t those calculated from congressional votes?
- Someone wanted to check out Gov. Palin’s law school. Just so you know, she’s not a lawyer.
- My favorite search? “Sarah Palin humorous VP”
- Longest search? “how many children has Gov of Alaska, Sarah Palin who cares for her children who is her husband”
Choose your targets carefully
Half the battle in any competition is shooting at the right target. (Remember the US biathlete who lost a gold medal a few years back because he got that wrong?) With the Democratic convention concluded, it’s clear they’ve chosen theirs: George W. Bush. They figure they don’t have to actually attack John McCain, which is not such an easy thing to do; they can just beat up on the easy target, the unpopular departing president, and then say that McCain is just the same. Superficially, it sounds like a good approach—after all, Barack Obama tells us, Sen. McCain voted with the President over 90% of the time! Wow, right?Well, not exactly. Sen. Obama’s dirty little secret here is—so did he. You see, what he knows and most Americans don’t is that some 90% of all Senate votes are unanimous: votes to adjourn (heh!), votes on resolutions to honor the Super Bowl winner, the team that won the NCAA tournament, etc. The political stuff that really matters amounts to less than 10% of the votes. Thus, to say that Sen. McCain voted with President Bush 94% of the time, let’s say, is to say that he opposed him roughly 60% of the time when it counted. That may also be misleading, of course; the great problem with tracking Senate vote totals is that you get multiple votes on different versions of the same bill, and grandstanding votes, and a whole lot of junk that accumulates in the voting record that really doesn’t help you understand anyone’s real positions. It’s still more meaningful than implying that Sen. McCain and President Bush agree on 90% of the major issues in this country, because they clearly don’t.This is why Dick Morris is saying that the Democrats blew their convention on the wrong target, because John McCain isn’t George W. Bush, and he can prove it; Morris even compares it to the GOP’s lousy aim in 1992 and ’96 that was such a help to Bill Clinton, since “McCain is the most unlike Bush of any of the Republican senators.” All Sen. McCain needs to do is to make that case clearly, and the Democratic efforts will be so much hot air. They’re already hard at work doing so, along with deflating some of the other claims Sen. Obama made in his speech.Of course, the problem for Sen. McCain is that Sen. Obama is an even harder figure to attack directly—because he’s a gifted politician, because it’s tricky to do so without looking like a racist, and because he just doesn’t have much of a record to look at; he, too, needs a broader target to which he can link Sen. Obama. I’ve been arguing that that target should be Congress, as a way of highlighting Sen. Obama’s clear and strong identification with the Democratic agenda; Karl Rove agrees, and notes the particular vulnerability of this Congress, and particularly the fights that are looming. As Rove concludes,
The end result of all of these messy fights is that a Congress—which hit a record low 14% approval rating in a July Gallup Poll before its members left on summer vacation—may become even more unpopular.Inevitably, John McCain and Barack Obama will be drawn into these fights. And, although both are sitting senators, the advantage may go to Mr. McCain. Democrats control Congress, so they are accountable. Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi are two of the worst advertisements for Congress imaginable. And Mr. McCain has an impressive record of political reform he can invoke, whereas Mr. Obama, who has yet to complete his first term in the Senate, has no accomplishments to point to that demonstrate that he is an agent of change.The 110th Congress is an excellent target for Mr. McCain. He ought to take careful aim at it and commence firing.
Kudos also to John McCain for class
My understanding is that this ad, congratulating Barack Obama on his victory and noting the poetic nature of his accepting his party’s nomination on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, is set to run tonight during the Democratic convention.
Kudos to the John McCain Ministry of Disinformation
There’s been some talk in recent weeks about the website http://www.mccainpalin.com/, especially among those of us booming Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Today, it has in succession redirected to websites purporting to announce a McCain/Pawlenty ticket, a McCain/Hutchison ticket, and now a McCain/Romney ticket. Where it will go by the time you click on the link, I have no idea. Plus, there are other indications and rumors flying—Tim Pawlenty has canceled appearances, the Secret Service is at Mitt Romney’s sister’s house, and so on—all pointing different directions.I can only come to one conclusion: the McCain campaign is playing with our minds. Having watched Sen. Obama’s pick leak despite efforts to keep everything hush-hush, they’ve decided to go the other way and flood the arena with disinformation. There are so many red herrings flopping around out there right now, the only thing you’re going to accomplish if you dive in is to come up smelling fishy.I have no idea who Sen. McCain’s pick will be; I think the complete absence of any pointers aiming at my favorite governor might be telling, but I’m by no means sure enough of that to say. I am sure of this, though: Sen. McCain said his pick is going to be a surprise, and by cracky, he wants to keep it that way!
Song of the Week
I’d never heard of Brandon Heath before he asked my wife’s cousin Curt and his kids to be among the cast of extras for his new video. The video is now out (my thanks to my dear wife for posting it), and it’s a great song; I’m not ashamed to say it made me weep. We fall so short of loving others the way God calls us to love; certainly, I do. Dear God, this is my prayer too.
Give Me Your Eyes
Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights;
My world from a mile high—
Best seat in the house tonight.
Touch down on the cold blacktop—
Hold on for the sudden stop;
Breathe in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos.
All those people going somewhere—
Why have I never cared?
Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing;
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted,
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten;
Give me your eyes so I can see, yeah.
Step out on a busy street,
See a girl and our eyes meet;
Does her best to smile at me,
To hide what’s underneath.
There’s a man just to her right,
Black suit and a bright red tie,
To ashamed to tell his wife
He’s out of work, he’s buying time.
All those people going somewhere—
Why have I never cared?
Chorus
I’ve been here a million times;
A couple of million eyes,
Just move and pass me by—
I swear I never thought that I was wrong.
Well, I want a second glance,
So give me a second chance
To see the way you’ve seen the people all along.
Chorus
Give me your eyes,
Lord, give me your eyes,
For everything that I keep missing.
Give me your heart for the broken-hearted;
Give me your eyes,
Lord, give me your eyes.
Words and music: Brandon Heath and Jason Ingram
©2008 Sitka6 Music/Peertunes, Ltd./Grange Hill Music/Windsor Way Music
From the album What If We, by Brandon Heath