Generally speaking, those with whom I am so unfortunate as to disagree on this matter accuse me on two counts.
First it is suggested that I am attempting to advance by Reason or Sight rather than by Faith and, secondly, I am told that to "explain" such a matter as the Survival of Death or the nature of the connection between matter and spirit, would tend to reduce everything to terms of mere mechanism and to leave no place at all in the Cosmos for Divine Will and Purpose or for the transcendental and mystical aspects of religion.
I need hardly say that I violently resent both these accusations.
The first charge seems to me to be easy of refutation.
In the first place the idea of "Blind Faith" or "Unreasoning Belief" is one which involves a contradiction in terms.
As Whately well says in his "Logic":
"If a man resolves that he will implicitly receive e.g., in religious points, all the decisions of a certain Pastor, Church or Party, he has in doing so performed one act of private judgment (i.e., the result of reasoning), which includes all the rest."
Hence it is impossible to dissociate Faith and Reason.
Secondly, just as Courage, in its proper sense, does not mean feeling no fear but the overcoming of it; so Faith consists, not of having no doubts but of dispelling them, and this involves a deliberate exercise of the will in choosing between two possible alternatives; that is to say, an act of reasoning.