Questioning tenets or traditions should neither invalidate nor lessen faith.
The medieval theologian Anselm used the Latin term fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) to underscore the importance of questioning faith. While some may consider “blind faith” a virtue, I think that it can be dangerous in that it may lead one to accept uncritically all manner of religious claims.
If one holds religious faith as a value, certainly, then, it is worth the effort to explore the rational ground(s) for one’s belief. This is not meant to imply that, in the end, religious belief is grounded exclusively in reason, but, rather, to claim that faith is not devoid of reason. Kierkegaard spoke of the possibility of a leap of faith, but that leap should only be made after one has marshaled all of the arguments for (and against) faith. Faith requires reason and reasons, but these are not enough in themselves to result in faith. One must also willingly move beyond the confines of reason in order to discover the divine.
The distinction between faith and knowledge remains an important one. Where the former (faith) may be based, at least in part, on the latter (knowledge), they are not to be considered, in the end, equal. Faith constitutes a risk because it is not based solely on reason, argument, or evidence. Questioning, however, is not extraneous to the experience of faith; it is critical to it.
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