标签：philosophy of religion

Reason and Ultimate Concern—An Attempt to Examine Why Mature Rational People Seek Religion

Introduction The relationship between reason and religious faith has always been a vexed issue in theology, philosophy of religion, and sociology of religion: are reason and faith mutually supportive, complementary, or incompatible? Is religious faith merely the choice of people who are ignorant or not intellectually mature enough? If so, why do so many people who at least appear to have sound psychology and mature intellect—such as even many of the most outstanding natural scientists of the contemporary era[①]—still piously believe in religion? The sociologist of religion Stark complained: “The idea that humans are essentially rational animals is the common foundation of mainstream modern social science. Religion is the only…