Faith and Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Faith and Knowledge - Essay Example Deduction, induction, and abduction in relation to reason in the works of Charles Sanders Peirce are also valid in relation to faith. Gdel's Incompleteness Theorems and Ontological Proof of the Existence of God are also valid when it comes to understand the limitations and shortcomings of both reason and faith. At the end of the road we find the unconditional love of God, and this knowledge springs out of the inner being of faith. The most important point that we ought to keep in mind is the fact that faith and reason are two sides of the same coin. In the same way in which reason is a source of knowledge, faith has also a gnoseological component in the very core of its essence. In the next passage we can assume that Dr. Chong Ho Yu (1994) -when referring to Peirce's concepts- was speaking about faith instead of reason, and the resulting assertions would be completely valid in the realm of faith. Let's see: "The philosophical notions introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) are helpful for researchers in understanding the nature of knowledge and reality. In Peircean logical system, the logic of abduction and deduction contribute to our conceptual understanding of a phenomenon, while the logic of induction adds quantitative details to our conceptual knowledge. Although Peirce justified the validity of induction as a self-corrective process, he asserted that neither induction nor deduction can help us to unveil the internal structure of meaning. As exploratory data analysis performs the function as a model builder for confirmatory data analysis, abduction plays a role of explorer of viable paths to further inquiry. Thus, the logic of abduction fits well into exploratory data analysis. At the stage of abduction, the goal is to explore the data, find a pattern, and suggest a plausible hypothesis; deduction is to refine the hypothesis based upon other plausible premises; and inducti on is the empirical substantiation." (Yu, 1994). Deduction, induction, and abduction are three interdependent facets of the same process of reasoning according to the insight of Charles Sanders Peirce. Those three elements give shape to faith too. Abduction is a form of guessing, and when we speak of "blind faith" we are indeed referring to the abductive aspect of faith. When we take a look at the Universe, and out its evident majesty we recognise the existence of God, we are using the deductive aspect of faith. In the same way, when we wake up any morning to go to work once again having faith in the idea that everything will work out right during the next 24-hour period, then we are exercising the inductive aspect of faith. And the process of living full of faith every second of our lives has a gnoseological content that makes us be better knowers in our experience of everyday relying and trusting, growing in faith. It doesn't matter if that faith is religious or secular. Faith is faith without any regards of the labels we put on it. As proof of the fact that faith and reason work together in the realm of knowledge, we can clearly see how faith and reason go hand in hand in the following passages from the Bible. Let's see: "Now faith is an assumption of what is being expected, a conviction concerning matters which are not