Faith, Reason and Skepticism

James Randi, formerly known as the "Amazing Randi," is a magician and life-long skeptic. Like Harry Houdini a century ago, Randi devotes much of his time debunking claims of the supernatural. To this end, he has established the "James Randi Educational Foundation," which promotes critical thinking and the scientific method. The JREF currently offers a $1,000,000 prize for proof of supernatural claims. Dousers, homeopaths, psychics and others have attempted to claim this prize. None, according to Randi, have passed the preliminary stage.

Skepticism and science have their limits, as Randi himself points out. It is impossible to prove a negative. Randi gives the example of Santa's flying reindeer. All of his available data suggest that reindeer cannot fly, but that does not prove that no reindeer anywhere can fly. Yet, Randi does not contend that he can prove that flying reindeer do not exist.

Another more dangerous aspect of open-ended skepticism is that it precludes faith. James Randi is an atheist, and so are many of his followers. As Randi relates, the doctrine of the Eucharist was a stumbling block to him as a young Catholic. The idea of the Eucharist is that God becomes for us bread and wine; that the bread and wine are transformed, albeit invisibly and imperceptibly. This is not the sort of miracle that lends itself to scientific study. If we require proof, then we miss the point that our relationship with Christ requires faith -- belief in that which we cannot see. So, faith does not fit the scientific method.

That does not mean that faith is absurd. If God is real, and James Randi admits that he cannot disprove such, then that is the most important truth we could know. If God is the loving, personal, fatherly God of Christianity, then we cannot know him as we may know Greek philosophy or the laws of physics. Rather, we must know Him as a person. Just as with a human parent or a good friend, our relationship with God can always be deepened. We cannot not know what it is that we do not know, but we trust in the goodness of the other. To love is to walk together in faith.

Knowing this, it would be absurd to expect that skepticism and the scientific method would serve us well in knowing God. Yet, this confusion seems to be the very root of the so-called "New Atheism." By setting themselves up as the guardians of reason, they sever themselves from non-scientific knowledge. This may provide a certain sense of superiority and self-satisfaction, but at the cost of knowing what can only be discovered through faith.