Quote:
Originally Posted by the Dutch mountains
So the problem with living by reason alone is the fact that your reasons can be based on a false assumption.
Our family motto is quite simple: "Don't be an ***."
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Simple, crystal-clear and to the point, Dutch.
OK. I have to disagree with the Master here. Faith is pretty much what impulses nearly all of us to live; feelings make us HUMAN. Only an emotionless a$$ like Descartes could have come up with that... but there is a very long and sad history behind that. FYI, Rene Descartes was unemotional for dear life: born a sickly child, he was never able to do any heavy physical work and everytime he got any excited he would suffer from breath shortness and palpitations, so he was kind of forced to bury his emotions under his intellect (anybody whispered "Vulcan"?), hence his babble about "reason above all else". Wikipedia explains RD's life better anyway.
We humans are
capable of reason, but seldom use it, lest live by it.
About how faith and feelings can go damaging in any way, here is the actual thing:
Faith is fine, but
religion has used it to brainwash brothers into destroying each other more times than I can count through recorded history. Thus,
religion is the greatest killer in history. Period.
About feelings, they are like "the bridge between nice and nasty"; they make us want, try and be good people or bad people. Problem is, while good people live their lives nicely and peacefully, bad people do a lot of damage, often irrepairable. So, if we "cut off" feelings, crime might disappear, but the world would become a boring hell. It should be a better course of action to exterminate all bad people (easier than "canceling" feelings anyway), but that sounds like Dexter Morgan. No thanks.
Conclusion: Faith is fine as long as there is no religion involved. Feelings are fine as long as they do not think for us, wether good or bad. Reason? Should do ALL of our thinking. Fortunately, it does not.
Dr. Carter