Rianka writes, “According to the Bible, we are accepted into God's kingdom once we believe that Jesus died for our sins, etc. Attached to that, we have to have faith in Jesus. Doesn't faith negate reason and logic, which we are born with?”
Excellent question! The clash between faith and logic has long been a debate between Christians—but I believe we can come to an adequate answer.
Faith in Jesus vs. Human Logic
I think there are several things to consider when talking about faith vs. reason. Your statement that humans are born with logic and reason is correct—we are given that ability. Further, it’s an ability God possess as well. In Isaiah 1:18 (KJV) we read, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” God clearly has the attribute of reasoning. Thus the fact that humans have this attribute is in affirmation of God’s command, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).
On a basic level, then, both God and Man can reason. Thus, God isn’t going to do something that violates the way He created Man.
So how do Faith and reason reconcile? The answer is that they go together!
This may shock you, the Strongs Numbers definition of “πείθω”, the Greek word from which we get “πίστις” (“faith” in Heb 11:1) is: “to convince (by argument, true or false); by analogy, to pacify or conciliate (by other fair means); reflexively or passively, to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty) -- agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be (wax) conflent, make friend, obey, persuade, trust, yield.” The word from which we get the word “faith” in the Greek means to persuade with argument or to assent to evidence or authority. The very definition of faith, then, is “persuasion”. The lines up perfectly with the actual Strongs definition of “faith”: “persuasion, i.e. Credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself -- assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.” Faith is persuasion by God about His truth (not enough time to go into why, but the Greek behind “faith” is always used in the New Testament to refer to something God bestows, neversomething someone gains by their own efforts).
With faith then being “persuasion based on something”, let’s look at what that something is.
The reason Jesus was to be believed was because He had proven He was God. His miracles, healings, and Resurrection are all great examples. Rather than go into any of those, however, let’s look at a very interesting example. John 20:30-31 (KJV) states, “30And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” John says the reason he wrote his Gospel was to get people to believe that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God. That means He was relying on documentation to persuade people to believe in Jesus. That’s evidence! Proof! An argument. Faith and reason are inextricably linked.
Thus, belief in Jesus Christ rather than being against reason, is built upon it. I hope that answers your question. Thanks for asking!
God bless,
Robert A. Rowlett