Fideism

Fideism in Christianity is the belief that God cannot be found through reason. Faith and reason are somehow incompatible with each other. Evidence and logic are meaningless; you must simply accept God exists through faith. I think it's what might be called "blind faith."

I am not a fideist. Do I have faith God exists? Of course, otherwise I wouldn't bother with Christianity. But I don't think you cannot use reason as a way to find God. How you react - by putting your faith in him or rejecting him - is a matter of how you submit to the Holy Spirit. I think I'm what you'd call an evidentialist. I tend to only believe something if there's good reason (be it logic or evidence) behind it.

Martin Luther may or may not have been a fideist, but he sure did talk like one. The general thrust of his position seemed to be that because God is so incomprehensible to us humans, it is pointless to try to understand him through reason. He also said a couple other things that were outright anti-intellectual but I won't go into that.

Overall, it seems that fideism - this notion of "you can't use reason with God" - is part of Lutheran tradition. Interestingly enough, I also saw a lot of it in the Assemblies of God as its doctrines seems to focus on personal experiences and the power of the Holy Spirit. This to me sounds a lot like fideism. And in both types of churches, I appear to be the odd man out!

People say you can't prove God. To a degree that is correct, in the sense you can't prove God like a mathematical proof. Perhaps this is one reason for a fideistic belief. Nonetheless through philosophy and examining the evidence we have on hand, one can see many reasons to believe in God using our reason. From there we can put faith in God or reject him. I am a Christian but like the apostle Thomas I have a tendency to doubt things I find incredible. I have a skeptic's mind.

That said, sometimes I think perhaps a bit of fideism in my life might benefit me. I've heard it said that the Bible is simple enough an uneducated person could understand it but complex enough a person could spend his whole life studying it. I have a desire to learn and understand things. This isn't a bad thing but I wonder if it hasn't hindered my growth as a Christian. There are so many things believed in Christianity and I want to know which ones are actually right. It's partially this desire that led me to the Lutheran church in the first place. Something about believing false things is reprehensible to me.

This puts me in the unenviable position of never being quite sure. Not sure if this or that is true, and needing to investigate it further. What if I just said "You know what? X thing might be wrong but I don't know. I think I'll just go ahead and believe it until shown otherwise." What if I just accept what I hear without nitpicking at it? Honestly, I want to just believe Lutheran doctrine because they seem right. Maybe I would do well to just go ahead and accept the stuff. There are two reasons I think this. First, there is no way I will ever figure it all out. There are going to be errors in my beliefs no matter how much I study. It's part of being human and having a limited life span. Second, all that really matters is that I have faith in God. So what if I am wrong in some secondary issue? All God said we had to do to be saved was have faith in Jesus and be baptized. He posted no other requirements.