Critical vs. Creative Thought
All critical thought is by nature adversarial. A "positive" role belongs instead to creative thought. While the role of creative thought is to create ideas and possibilities, the role of critical thought is to debunk them, and it is only by these two processes working together that we arrive at knowledge and truth. Critical thought can be viewed in much the same way as natural selection: it does in a sense "create" by eliminating the "weak" and leaving the "strong". Thus, critical thought's role as a debunking device is essential and indispensable, and it must play a part in every act of knowing. But it does not eliminate ideas and possibilities until none are left. Nihilism is as irrational as blind faith, and as self limiting as naivety. Rather, critical thought eliminates until all that remains is the consistent, the probable, the tenable, the reliable, the useful--in other words, knowledge.
Reinsmith writes here that "critical thought must not see itself perpetually at odds with religion or spiritual practice; rather it must get to know and value its place within that domain." This cannot be true, because critical thought is perpetually at odds with everything, even ordinary and mundane thoughts and ideas, and critical thinkers not only accept this, but cherish the fact. This is not to say that we disbelieve everything; rather, it is to say that any honest critical thinker occasionally attacks everything with critical thought, even what they take for granted or believe to be certain or irrefutable. Needless to say, much of what we believe survives the assaults of critical thought by virtue of its being most probably true, but we nevertheless sick the dogs of critical thought upon even these beliefs, and rightly consider it a virtue to do so. We never know when we might uncover a mistake or an unwarranted assumption, or when new information may change what we now think to be true. But critical thinkers know that this is the only way to learn.
The Role of Critical Thought in Religion
So far I think Reinsmith would be in complete agreement. Yet he still tells us that critical thought must find its "place" within the "domain" of religious thought. Before asking what "place" that could be (or why it would be any different from its place in all other endeavors), we must first ask what the "domain" of religion actually is. Reinsmith makes a solid attempt at doing this, and rightly comes to the conclusion that what makes something uniquely "religious" is human religious or spiritual experience, not the institutions of religion (ideological or physical). This is because the most important institutions of religion are based on spiritual experiences, both in the sense of having originated with them and in the sense of being proven or justified by them. In contrast, those institutions which do not have any similar and certain foundations in religious experience belong more properly in the cultural or social domain, and are called "religious" merely because they are associated with those aspects which are genuinely religious in nature and origin.
However, religious experience is something most if not all of us can agree is a fact: it unquestionably exists, regardless of whether we agree with the conclusions people draw from it. Reinsmith gives us one example of a religious experience in the form and process of a particular kind of meditation, but he applies critical thought only to the activity and not to the conclusions people draw from it. Yet this is what religion is ultimately all about. While it is based on religious experience, only when certain conclusions are arrived at and acted upon does a religion exist- and only then does critical thought really have something to question. Reinsmith reveals where he missed this point when he writes in his conclusion that "the modern critical thinker must first admit to the possibility of a spiritual dimension to human existence, the denial of which in the working lives of academics and intellectuals is one of the great biases and blocks of the 20th century."[4] The mistake here is assuming that "the possibility of a spiritual dimension to human existence" is what academics do in fact deny, but this is rarely, or at least not generally the case. What academics most frequently and ardently deny are the conclusions people draw from their spiritual experiences, and any examination of religious debates will reveal this fact. Few people of note question the existence of spiritual experiences, and as spiritual experiences constitute a "spiritual dimension to human existence" it should be clear that Reinsmith is attacking a phantom.[5] In contrast, what permits Reinsmith to identify critical thought as "adversarial" to religion is the application of critical thought to the conclusions drawn from spiritual experience, such as the core tenets of Buddhism and Christianity summarized above, and this is where the real problem lies.
When I saw and read this article, I thought, WOW, it states why we need both and how both complement each other so well, that I had to include it all otherwise I would not have done it justice. Yes, I would have to say, that critical thinking and religious faith are compatible, to understand why we believe what we believe in. Pat Kaehler.
