Foibles of Reason

Salt Lake Tribune, Forum, 9/30/98

Scott Stoddard's comments and analysis on the dangers of faith bear a bit more analysis (Forum, Sept. 10). While logic, reason and science are more structured and regulated than faith, they are belief systems subject to the same foibles and errors to which faith is prone. Religious practitioners may have a burning bosom to convince them that an erroneous path is God's will, but likewise, advocates of science and reason are often similarly misled.

Reason, logic and science have led mankind down many a dead-end street. Science created Thalidomide as a cure for morning sickness and created a generation of horribly disfigured children. The Nazis used reason and science to justify the murder of individuals in mental institutions. Slavery was advocated for centuries by arguments which were logical and rational. So, while we are busy pointing out what may be a beam in the eye of faith as a belief system, let us not overlook the mote in the eye of science, reason and logic.

We can evaluate any belief system, Mormon, fundamentalist, or scientific, by its fruit. An objective analysis of the "fruit" of both religion and science results in bushels of both healthy nutrition and some poison fruit. I am not knocking logic, reason or science; rather, like Mr. Stoddard, I suggest that whatever the alternative to faith ight be, it likewise should be "leavened."

The belief that science and reason will lead us to absolute truth, quite frankly, takes a lot of faith.

Ralf D. Czerny
Sandy