Where do I begin to tell the story Of how great a love can be ....

I am reading an interesting book: Conceiving GOD: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion, by David Lewis-Williams. As Welsh as his name sounds, he comes from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

He quotes David Hume: “In religion, reason is always post hoc.”

What does this mean? It does not mean that reason does not have a place in religion. Indeed, it is hard to have any systematic theology, dogma, doctrine or even discussion without reason having a place. However, it does mean that reason does not occupy the primary place, the starting point, the arche of religion. 

The author uses reason in the wider sense of both rationalism and scientific empiricism (or more broadly, the scientific method). Thus both deduction and induction among other things come within the orbit of reason.

Post hoc is a complex notion, but for our purposes, and in this context, it means that revelation of certain "facts" precedes reasoning based on those facts. In a sense the facts are assumed to exist prior to the reasoning process.

Thus for a Calvinist, the facts of God's sovereignty, omniscience (all knowing), omnipotence (all power) and omnipresence become the defined "properties" of God, upon which reasoning can be erected. Admittedly , in this case, one might argue that such properties are reasonable to infer about the being of God from the beginning and that a Bible is not needed to set them forth. In a sense, then they appear a little like mathematically axioms. Most Calvinist, however, do set these facts forth as unreasoned revelation.

Other fundamental starting points do require revelation before reason. For the fundamentalist Christian, there are usually the five fundamentals.  These require some reasoning based of a selection of suitable verses of scripture and an oversight of others to make them ‘appear’ coherent.

1. The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture

2. The deity of Jesus Christ

3. The virgin birth of Christ

4. The substitutionary, atoning work of Christ on the cross

5. The physical resurrection and the personal bodily return of Christ to the earth.

The first one is open to the charge of circular reasoning. However without it, numbers 2 through 5 topple like dominoes. 

Most fundamentalist agree on one thing: These five fundamentals stand not primarly on the basis of reason. They stand on the basis of revelation.

The author, Lewis-Williams, suggests that religion has become:

"an industry in a capitalist sense. An elite group owns the resources (revealed knowledge) and the means of production (religious buildings, schools and so forth), while the public at large buys the product (salvation, peace of mind) and thus enriches the elite (witness the wealth of the Vatican and other major religious denominations)." 

To the end of the last quote we might add the wealth of the tele-evangelists and prosperity preachers.

Of course if the public are not too convinced about "buying" the product, then the consequences of not "buying" are set before them: roasting in hell forever and a day.

In this way, the church makes sure that any reasonable reasoned discussion is impossible.

The church also, sadly, places any unique, individual, ineffable experience of the divine within its strict doctrinal searchlight - its gaze of unreasonable reason.