Sometimes it’s surprising to recall that we as humans can hold two seemingly contradictory ideas in our mind and and find both of them meaningful. I am referring to Reason and Faith, some people think that they both are opposing ideas of each other, but I feel they are more like companions of one another, each with a specific purpose in our lives.
The reason, aims to decode reality, finding the how of things, how this happens, how that happens. While faith, if we talk about, steps into the why dimension, that why we care, why we strive, why to do this and why not to do that.
Reason tells us how the planets move, how electricity flows, how our DNA makes us the way we are. And thus reason is very essential, but as much it explains the how of things, it fails to answer our deeper questions, that why do we feel the sense to sacrifice for something greater than ourselves? why do we instinctively recoil from doing certain actions, like harming a loved one?
This brings us to the concept of cognitive dualism, a way to understand the world from both the aspects, the science and the interpersonal experience. Think of a painting, from the stand point of science it is just an arrangement of few colors on a sheet of paper, a chemical interaction under light that our eyes perceive. But from the point of our human-world lived mind, it becomes a completely different thing, it could be a depiction of love, a message, an inspiration or anything else. Both these perspectives are valid, but they serve different means. Science asks, What caused this to happen?, while human spirit asks What does this mean?
And the funny thing is, that we live in this dualism every day. We are humans, we are capable of self-reflection and free action, right? Yet the neuroscience can scan our entire brain, can map out every pattern it finds, but it cannot locate the “I” within us, it’s the same I, that loves, grieves, hopes and dreams. Still we act as if this I is real, but in reality its not, at least not from the point of logical reasoning.
Consider the designs around us, if we look at traditional architectures, they often have sense of personality, warmness, structure that invite blissfulness. But if we look at modern architecture, yes it looks appealing, but feels in someway cold, different, alienating sometimes. Its like if the buildings themselves are asking us to look at ourselves like machines and not persons. But why? this probably will be difficult to answer from the lens of science, because its the human spirit that is feeling it.
Art too is a point where reason struggles to fully define the happening. Evolutionary psychology might tell us that listening to music activates certain neural pathways in our mind, and that’s true. But it fails to elaborate the way we connect with those musical notes, the feeling it creates inside us. In reality, that’s just waves of sound, yes, but what is causing inside us that we are feeling emotion while sensing it. A music of bravery genre energizes us, while listening to a emotional poetry makes us feel heavy, here we respond not with logic, but with sympathy.
Reason and Faith both are two sides of the same coin, reason allows us to see and navigate the world with precision, while faith layers it with purpose. And together they create, what it means to be human. Rational, but also moral and emotional. And remember, seeking truth with reason and living meaningfully with faith is not a contradiction, it’s a harmony.