Faith and reason are complementary<br/><br/>
Last Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI made a speech at the University of Regensburg, where he used to be a professor. The topic was, “Faith, Reason and the University”. He believes that reasoning plays an important role in the field of academic research. However, faith and reason may not be separated. Instead, they are complementary to each other. The Pope quoted a dialogue between a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos and a Persian scholar as seen from Professor’s Theodore Khoury’s writing, to prove that faith and reason indeed go hand in hand. Thus, using violence to spread the faith is not reasonable at all; it is also incompatible with the nature of God.<br/><br/>
As a matter of fact, the Pope’s speech was a warning, addressed to Western culture, especially the Europeans, to avoid the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom. Teachings of the different religions and cultures are part of the human race’s valuable asset. These teachings do not oppose reason, and thus, our society must also rely on these divine inspirations as cornerstones.<br/><br/>
Vatican spokesperson Fr. Lombardi S.J. said that the Holy Father had no intention to hurt the Islamic people. His desire, instead, is to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, including, of course, Islam.