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Is Faith Really Blind? What Skeptics Get Wrong

Is Faith Really Blind? What Skeptics Get Wrong

Last updated on: October 25, 2026 at 10:55 am by David Schloss

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Is Faith Really Blind? What Skeptics Get Wrong 2026-10-25T10:55:17-04:00 David Schloss

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Faith And Reason.

Faith is belief without evidence and reason. So saith the famous (infamous?) atheist Richard Dawkins. But is that true? Is faith a blind leap in the dark? Worse yet, is faith believing something we know is false or that cannot be proven?

While this is obviously not the Catholic Church’s conclusion, it does raise a question. Does theology or philosophy possess a rational foundation for faith?

This paper explores such a foundation known as the praeambula fidei (preamble to faith).

The Praeambula Fidei

The view that faith must never be divorced from reason has a long and storied history in Catholicism. The Catholic intellectual tradition (CIT) is predicated on four precepts.

First, faith and reason are complementary propositions. Catholic theology is firmly grounded in the conviction that grace builds on nature. This is another way of saying that God works in and through His creation. Moreover, since God is the source of all truth, reason (philosophy, science, empirical inquiry) and faith (theology, Scripture) do not contradict, but mutually enhance one another.

Second, that reality is imbued with the sacramental. That is, the invisible, or divine, can become visible through the ordinary, material world, such as history, art, nature, and human experience.

Third, aspects of truth can be found in multifarious places. Rooted in thinkers like Saint Augustine, the tradition embraces insights from diverse cultures, scientific disciplines, and even non-Christian sources (such as Aristotle and Cicero).

However, (and this is the fourth precept) the Catholic tradition resists a fragmenting or partitioning of knowledge. Instead, Catholicism strives for an integrated vision of reality in which all academic disciplines connect to a common end.

These precepts form the basis of praeambula fidei and appear across historical settings. The synthesizing power of the precepts helped merge Jewish monotheism and covenantal history, Greek philosophical rigor (Plato, Aristotle), and Roman structures of law, order, and governance.

In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas harmonized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology, laying the groundwork for systematic university education and natural law.

In turn, the Catholic Church helped establish the modern university system in medieval Europe (e.g., Bologna, Paris, Oxford), viewing the campus as a place for the universal search for truth.

This led Catholic clergy and lay scholars (such as Gregor Mendel in genetics or Georges Lemaître, who proposed the Big Bang theory) to advance science, alongside centuries of patronage and production in literature, architecture, and music.

Finally, papal encyclicals such as Pope John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae outlined the Catholic university’s mission to bridge empirical science, philosophy, and theology.

Ultimately, the preambles of faith refer to foundational, rational truths that can be known through natural human reason alone before a person makes a supernatural act of divine faith. Put differently, the preambles of faith provide the rational foundation for the suprarational act of faith.

This point is worth dwelling on because it is the error made by people like Dr. Dawkins. Catholicism distinguishes between what is contrary to reason (irrational) and what is above human reason (suprarational). Dawkins conflates the suprarational (articles of faith like the Trinity) with the irrational, whereas the preambles show that the articles build upon, rather than violate, rational foundations.

Still, the preambles are not themselves aspects of faith. Rather, they serve as the philosophical runway for faith to take flight. In Catholic theology, these truths prove that believing the Gospel is an inherently rational act, preventing faith from slipping into blind emotionalism (fideism).

So what are these truths, and how can reason alone know them?

Natural Theology

The preambles of faith are truths about God and human nature that unaided human reason and philosophy can know and demonstrate. These truths are discovered independent of divine revelation.

Traditionally, the praeambula fidei are philosophical and logical propositions asserting God’s existence, the immortality of the soul, the reality of objective truth, and the historical reality of divine revelation through signs like miracles.

In turn, the claims of the preambles of faith are generally contained within the larger sphere of natural theology.

Natural theology in the Catholic tradition studies God’s existence and attributes using human reason and observation of the created world, without relying on divine revelation or Scripture.

Of epistemological importance is that the preambles to faith act as a bridge to supernatural revelation and faith. How does this process occur? Natural theology provides the rational proofs for the truths that constitute the praeambula fidei.

To understand their connection, it helps to see how the two concepts intersect. The praeambula fidei is a theological term for the specific truths that must logically be true before one can make a rational act of supernatural faith. Examples include the proposition that God exists, that God is one, and that the human soul is immortal.

For this reason, natural theology is the highest branch of metaphysics. It is a purely philosophical effort to understand God’s existence and attributes by examining the created order (cause and effect, contingency, design) through natural reason alone, without relying on divine revelation.

In short, natural theology is the tool, and the praeambula fidei are the product**.** When one uses rational arguments for the existence of God (e.g., the Five Ways), one is practicing philosophical theology or metaphysics. The conclusion wrought from such rational arguments (e.g., God exists) becomes a preamble to faith.

This fact allows the praeambula fidei to serve as a vital bridge between philosophy and theology. The rational arguments that lead to the preambles to faith become the subject of the theological inquiry.

Lastly, we must differentiate the preambles of faith from the articles of faith. While the preambles of faith are truth claims based on human rationality alone, the articles of faith are claims grounded in the mysteries of revelation that human reason could never discover on its own (such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, or the Resurrection).

Because God has revealed both types of truth, natural theology serves two critical purposes for faith. First, natural theology demonstrates that faith is not a blind, irrational leap (fideism). If natural reason can prove that a supreme Creator exists, then it becomes entirely reasonable to listen to what that Creator might reveal.

Second, it fulfills the famous scholastic axiom that “grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.” Supernatural faith (a gift of grace) presupposes a rational human mind capable of knowing foundational truths about reality (nature).

Conclusion

Contrary to the musings of skeptics like Doctor Richard Dawkins, properly developed religious faith is never divorced from reason. Indeed, within the Catholic tradition, faith presupposes reason. If this is true, then there must be evidence available and amenable to human reason. The concepts contained within the praeambula fidei are just that evidence.

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