“Shattering the axiom of reason”

“As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles. Whose authority? The Old Testament? The New Testament? The Koran? In practice, people choose the book considered sacred by the community in which they are born, and out of that book they choose the parts they like, ignoring the others. At one time, the most influential text in the Bible was: ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ Nowadays, people pass over this text, in silence if possible, if not, with an apology. And so, even when we have a sacred book, we still choose as truth whatever suits our own prejudices. No Catholic, for instance, takes seriously the text which says that a bishop should be the husband of one wife.

Russell, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

Emil Brunner is quoted in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (I.I) as seeking to ’shatter the axiom of reason.’ But can Brunner answer Russell: is it possible to abandon reason without ending up in the problems that Russell describes? I don’t think it is. But rather, I want to suggest an alternative approach.

Humans are narrative beings. Humans need morals in order to create successful societies. Religion provides a narrative into which people can place the narrative of their own lives. And that narrative contains a moral code. The success of the narrative, and the ability of the moral code to sustain a society determine whether a religion will be successful.

Thus, rather than thinking of religion as true or false, it is sensible to think of religion as successful or unsuccessful. The only problem seems with this view is that it is hard to not view ‘untrue’ yet ’successful’ religion as malevolent, yet this doesn’t have to be. The real test is what the products of religion are. If they are malevolent, then we have right to fear. The current view religious belief, as exemplified by the ‘new atheism’ is a sure path to religions developing severe persecution complexes. And the products of persecution complexes are terrifying.

And so religion must be encouraged and supported to realise that the axiom of reason isn’t going anywhere, but that realisation does not for a minute diminish its functionality & benefit for human society.