Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. ~ Blaise Pascal, Pensees’

Sadly, one way the Enemy has infiltrated society is to spread the accusation that faith and reason are at odds with each other. Worse, sometimes Christians themselves lean toward anti-intellectualism like somehow if you want answers, you’re not having enough faith.

But this is just inconsistent with the Bible I read.

Jesus affirmed that we’re to love God with what? Heart, soul, mind, and strength.

In other words, our whole selves that He happened to make in His image (and He’s pretty smart, right?). And who’s doing the talking in Isaiah 1:18 when it says, “Come now, let us reason together?” Yup. That’d be God talking about proving arguments (Really. Go look up the Hebrew).

When you’re talking with someone, this question could go seriously deep in philosophy around head-spinning topics like epistemology, deontology, metaphysics, axiology. It could go deep into defining stuff like “brute facts,” “justified true belief,” and the like.

But if forewarned is forearmed, you don’t need to be a philosopher to simply ask, “Is belief the death of intelligence?”…of yourself.

And here’s a reeeeeally important point. The question comes down to whether or not there is a God, because by definition, a Creator of the cosmos would have to be, among other things, infinitely intelligent. You need to own that in your heart of hearts.

We don’t believe in spite of evidence, but in light of it. A theistic God, and more specifically the Christian theistic God, makes more sense than anything. And for us to say that God doesn’t make sense, if God actually exists, means that we’re elevating ourselves above Him.

Belief isn’t the death of intelligence. It’s the beginning of wisdom.

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

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Questions to ask: Is belief the death of intelligence?

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