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University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 2, 1964
Page 3
Religious Faith
The People Say...
Editor:
Mr. Grunau's letter on February 24 accuses me of violating "usual debate procedures," in a recent event advertised as a debate entitled "Christianity vs. Humanism." The reasons given for this charge are that I did not defend a thesis and that I was not "constructive." I should like to reply to these criticisms:
1. Both Mr. Wolff and I agreed that we were not conducting a formal debate, and the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship insisted that they did not envisage the event as a formal debate. However, all the public announcements did clearly advertise it as a debate. This was unfortunate, and perhaps explains some (though not all) of Mr. Grunau's disappointment.
2. Nevertheless, I believe that I
4. Mr. Grunau contends that I "launched into an attack on the Christian faith." What I thought I was doing was to give as fair a definition of faith as I could. If I understand correctly what many Christian philosophers and theologians say about the nature of faith, then it would seem that faith is utterly beyond attack (in the sense of rational appraisal). To
did defend a thesis. The thesis was that having faith in a personal God, and feeling obligated to act in accordance with His will are not solutions to man's moral dilemma. My defense of this thesis consisted in pointing out what I take to be insuperable logical difficulties with the attempt to give a religious justification of ethical beliefs.
3. Whether such a thesis is "constructive" is not to be decided by whether it is interpreted as an attack or a defense of Christianity.
point this cut is not to attack faith, but merely to agree with what most Christians themselves insist upon."
5. In any case, I am not concerned in the least to cause anyone to lose their religious faith. I am concerned to scrutinize the claims made concerning what such faith logically implies in the way of moral beliefs.
6. It is surely obvious that the historical authenticity of the New Testament in its accounts of the resurrection of Jesus is not relevant to the thesis for which I was arguing. For even if it is true that Jesus arose from the dead, and this were conclusive evidence for His divinity, the person who believes this still must face the moral problems which I raised.
David Jones Department of Philosophy
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