Faith and Grace

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A recent survey reveals that around 90% of the scientists from the prestigious United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) are either atheist or agnostic. I wonder why belief in God’s existence is rejected by today’s most brilliant minds. A few years back, one of the most successful entrepreneurs I know told me his reason for unbelief: “the problem with faith is that it has so many gray areas”. A sharper man I’ve never met, but I plainly can’t bring myself to agree with his logic; for me, faith simplifies and paints everything in black and white.

I remember a joke I heard: “It’s good that being smart is not necessary for salvation, otherwise we’d have to get a master’s degree to get into heaven”. Kidding aside, faith and reason are equally essential in the quest to know God. Pope John Paul II wrote: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth”; we simply can’t hope to see God, hence Truth, without one or the other.

Discussing the correlation (or lack of) between intelligence and a/theism with a friend, I proudly shared my conclusion: “Faith is a gift”, only to be humbled seconds later by my friend’s: “Faith is not a gift but is rather a grace”. “The difference?” I asked. “A gift is something that can simply be given to anyone; grace is given only to those who ask for it.”  I couldn’t have been happier to be corrected.

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.” – Blaise Pascal