Faith vs Truth? A False Opposition; A Tragedy

When a man with academic honors presents a false opposition between faith and truth, many listeners may never notice the error. They merely absorb the conclusion. The confusion spreads under the appearance of enlightenment. What a tragedy. 

Prologue: A Misleading and Revealing Statement. 

I recently stumbled on a post in which a certain doctorate degree holder who has set himself up as a critic of religion categorically stated:

“Defending the faith and defending the truth are not the same thing. In most churches people defend faith not truth so that members will not leave.”

Many readers, impressed by the prestige of academic titles, may be tempted to nod in agreement.

Yet beneath the appearance of profundity lies a false opposition; and a tragic one.

For if faith and truth are enemies, then Christianity itself collapses.

The Catholic Faith has never taught that faith is a refuge from truth. Quite the contrary. Faith is man’s submission to truth revealed by God.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:

“The object of faith is the First Truth.”

That single sentence demolishes the entire opposition.

• Faith does not compete with truth.
• Faith is ordered toward truth.

The Catholic does not believe in spite of truth.

He believes because he has recognized the authority of Truth Himself.

The Ancient Catholic Position

For two thousand years and counting the Church has proclaimed that faith and reason, faith and truth, are allies.

Pope Leo XIII wrote:

“There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy between the theologian and the physicist, as long as each confines himself within his own lines, and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, ‘not to make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known.” (Providentissimus Deus, issued on 18 November 1893) 

Truth cannot contradict truth.

The God who created the intellect is the same God who reveals divine mysteries.

Therefore:

• Truth discovered by reason is from God.
• Truth revealed by faith is from God.

How then can faith and truth be enemies?

To oppose them is to accuse God of contradicting Himself.

The Martyrs and Confessors Refute the Theory

The critic’s statement might have some force if Christians had merely clung to comforting beliefs.

But history tells another story. Doesn’t it? 

The martyrs did not die for membership retention. They died for truth. They could have saved their lives by denying Christ. They refused.

The confessors did not endure prison, exile, torture, and poverty to preserve an institution.

They suffered because they believed Christianity was true.

• Not useful.
• Not comforting.
• Not culturally advantageous.

True. 

A man may die for an illusion.

But millions across centuries do not joyfully embrace persecution for what they know to be a convenient falsehood.

The blood of the martyrs is a standing rebuke to the claim that Christian faith is merely tribal loyalty. It is Catholic in time, place and persons, just like truth is universal in time, place and persons. Thus any “faith” that is not Catholic is not Christian. 

The Hidden Assumption

The statement rests upon a hidden assumption.

It assumes that faith belongs to the realm of subjective preference, while truth belongs to the realm of objective reality.

But this is not argued.

It is merely assumed.

Yet every human being lives by faith -natural, human, practical faith.

• The scientist trusts the reliability of his senses.
• The historian trusts testimony.
• The student trusts textbooks.
• The citizen trusts countless facts he has never personally verified.
• The critic himself expects readers to believe his statement.

The issue is not whether men have faith.

The issue is whether their faith is placed in truth.

The real opposition is not:

Faith vs Truth

but:

Truth vs Error

and

True Faith vs False Belief.

Confusing the Abuse of Faith with Faith Itself

Now, it is true that there are people who defend denominations, personalities, traditions of men, financial interests, social standing, or membership statistics. Such people indeed resist truth when it threatens their position.

• A self-acclaimed preacher whose livelihood depends upon maintaining a particular narrative often suppresses inconvenient facts.
• A self-appointed religious leader whose reputation rests upon a cherished error is often hostile to correction.
• A business institution with a religious tag obsessed with numbers prefers comforting illusions to uncomfortable realities.

History provides many examples of men who have defended their influence rather than the truth, their prestige rather than principle, and their followers rather than facts.

But that is not a criticism of faith.

• It is a criticism of dishonesty and irreligion. 
• It is a criticism of pride.
• It is a criticism of the perennial  tendency of fallen men to place self-interest above truth.

Indeed, such conduct is condemned by the authentic religion itself.

The Catholic Faith has never taught men to cling to falsehood for the sake of convenience. Rather, it commands them to submit themselves to truth regardless of the personal cost.

• When a man rejects truth because it threatens his income, he is not acting from faith.
• When he rejects truth because it threatens his reputation, he is not acting from faith.
• When he rejects truth because it may cost him followers, influence, or applause, he is not acting from faith.

He is acting from fear.

Faith does not fear truth.

• Faith seeks truth.
• Faith loves truth.
• Faith is confirmed in truth and rejoices in truth because its ultimate object is God, who is Truth itself.

The tragedy, therefore, is that this critic and his likes  mistake the betrayals of faith for the essence of faith. They observe religious hypocrisy and conclude that religion itself is the problem. They witness men acting contrary to their professed beliefs and then imagine that the beliefs themselves are at fault.

• But a counterfeit coin does not disprove the existence of genuine currency.
• Nor does religious dishonesty disprove religion.
• The abuse of a thing is not an argument against its proper use.
• The existence of hypocrites no more disproves the Catholic Faith than the existence of corrupt judges disproves justice or dishonest scholars disproves learning.

The real distinction is not between faith and truth.

It is between those who submit to truth and those who subordinate truth to their own interests.

A Tragedy of Modern Education

And here we encounter the truly tragic aspect of the matter.

What are we to say of an educational system that can confer advanced degrees upon a man while leaving him capable of promoting such a crude false dichotomy?

A doctorate is supposed to signify:

•  Disciplined thought.
• Precision.
• The ability to distinguish.
• The ability to avoid elementary logical fallacies.

Yet modern education increasingly rewards rhetoric and sophism  over reasoning, confidence over competence, and skepticism over wisdom. 

One of the saddest spectacles of our age is the educated man who mistakes irreverence for intelligence. And, how many of such men does the secular humanist educational system produce year in year out! 

• The degree hangs on the wall.
• The fallacy remains in the argument.
• The title impresses the crowd.
• The reasoning fails the examination.

This is not a triumph of education.

It is an indictment of it.

The Danger to the Poor and Unlearned

The situation becomes even more serious when such statements are addressed to ordinary people. Imagine the audience of the market square of social media! 

Most people do not possess the leisure, training, or philosophical background needed to dissect sophisticated-sounding claims.

They hear: “Doctor.”

They see: “Scholar.”

And they conclude:

“He must know what he is talking about.”

• Thus authority replaces argument.
• Prestige replaces evidence.
• Titles replace truth.

The poor and unlearned are easily dazzled by credentials.

Not because they are foolish.

But because they naturally assume that learning should produce wisdom.

When a man with academic honours presents a false opposition between faith and truth, many listeners may never notice the error.

They merely absorb the conclusion.

Thus confusion spreads under the appearance of enlightenment. What a tragedy. 

The Wisdom of the Church

The Church has long warned against this danger.

Pope St. Pius X observed in his struggle against Modernism that many errors gain influence not because they are true, but because they are presented by men possessing intellectual prestige.

The temptation to worship credentials instead of truth is not new.

But Catholics must resist it.

• An argument does not become true because a professor or doctorate degree holder utters it.
• A fallacy does not become wisdom because it is printed in a journal.
• Truth remains truth even when spoken by a peasant.
• Error remains error even when proclaimed from a university lectern.

Summing Up: Christ Settles the Matter

Ultimately, the dispute is settled by Our Hood Lord Himself.

• He did not say: “I am useful.”
• He did not say: “I am inspiring.”
• He did not say: “I am a tradition.”

He said:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6)

The Catholic believes because Christ is Truth.

The Catholic defends the Faith because he believes it to be true.

If the Faith were false, it would deserve no defence.

If it is true, it deserves complete allegiance.

The critic therefore asks us to separate what Christ Himself united.

Faith and truth are not enemies.

Faith is truth believed.

And to pit one against the other is not an insight.

It is a confusion.

This  confusion is made more dangerous when clothed in academic robes and presented to the public as wisdom. An abysmal tragedy!