Hawzah News Agency - Human intellect is incapable of offering details in discerning good and evil or determining the purpose of life, therefore it depends on the guidance of religion.
Question:
Can human reason alone distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong? Do we need religion even though we have reason?
Answer:
Reason perceives general concepts but is incapable of understanding specific details and instances in most cases.
Reason comprehends the goodness and badness of some topics, but not all of them, and even in those limited cases, it often fails to recognize their specific instances. For example, reason understands the general goodness of justice and the general evil of oppression but cannot identify their specific examples and must seek guidance from religion.
Although reason can prove the existence of God, the necessity of the afterlife, and prophethood, it remains entirely unaware of their details.
Reason, being incapable of fully and precisely identifying worldly and otherworldly, material and spiritual, individual and social, physical and psychological benefits and harms, remains silent on many details and specifics. If religion had not taught us many jurisprudential, ethical, and doctrinal rulings, we would have never become aware of them—especially those related to the hereafter.
Reason proves that the universe has a Creator who is knowledgeable and wise. Therefore, the universe, including humanity, has not been created aimlessly or in vain. Consequently, humans, like the rest of the universe, are moving toward a purpose and have a final destination. However, reason does not know what humanity’s purpose is or what its ultimate destination might be. Hence, it acknowledges the need for religion to understand humanity’s purpose and ultimate destination.
By: Davood Esfandiari
Ph.D. in Theology, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute
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