How Do We Know?

Jane raises some very good questions in the post below regarding knowledge (what we know, how we know it) when she asserts that she is not an agnostic since she does feel that she knows/believes whole-heartedly things she cannot fully explain.

I call myself an agnostic in the context of the theist/atheist debates largely because those debates are generally conducted in philosophical and scientific terms–which is to say in strictly rational terms. Therefore, I think that when we define knowledge as that which we may know according to reason, we must all be agnostics, since none of us can logically prove much of anything regarding the presence or lack of presence of a benevolent, omnipotent God.

However, as Jane rightfully alludes to, there are many other ways of knowing besides the strictly rational. After all, we rely upon intuitions and feelings and other non-rational forms of insight all the time. We wouldn’t be able to function in the world if we didn’t–as neuroscience writer, Jonah Lehrer’s recent book, How We Decide, lays bare.

That said, I think that, as Christians or believers more generally, it’s important for us to remember the fact that, in rational terms, we lack of knowledge–we are, in this sense, agnostics. Reason serves as a very, very important counterbalance to the knowledge/belief that comes from one’s felt awareness of God. Reason helps us to live into that most Christian of virtues: humility.

We know but we do not know.

- Jamie McElroy