Faith and reason

A couple of days ago i said that it is impossible to argue anyone into the love of God. This comes out of the vitriol i have found on the blogsphere against religious faith, the main argument against which is 'it isn't reasonable'. I do believe Christianity stands up to intellectual scrutiny, and that it is a rational system of belief (although there are certain key elements that cannot be reduced to rational propositions) but in the end Donald Miller in the excellent 'blue like jazz' when he talks of a conversation he had with someone at college sums it up like this:
"I had no explanation for Laura. I don't think there is an explanation. My belief in Jesus did not seem rational or scientific and yet there was nothing I could do to separate myself from this belief. I think Laura was looking for something rational because she believed all things that were true were rational. But that isn't the case. Love, for example, is a true emotion, but it is not rational. What I mean is, people actually feel it. I have been in love, plenty of people have been in love, yet love cannot be proved scientifically, and yet love canot be proved scientifically. Neither can beauty. Light cannot be proved scientifically, and yet we all believe in light and by light see all things. There are plenty of things that are true that don't make any sense.'
It's not a perfect answer, but it gets close to how I feel too.

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