Theologian and apologist Alister McGrath once thought that reason was a stumbling block to faith. But now the former atheist says human reason is limited, and cannot fully grasp the reality of God.

The academic, who has degrees in molecular biology, theology and intellectual history was addressing more than 3,000 Christians at this year's Keswick Convention, meeting in the Lake District.
Professor McGrath encouraged the Christians gathered to be bold in proclaiming the Trinity, saying that it gave people a framework for understanding God.

"The Trinity is a way of safeguarding our vision of God…making sure we never sell God short to ourselves or anyone else. In this challenging context in which to present God, we need to present God in all his fullness," he said.
"The doctrine of the Trinity is this realisation that God is just so great, we are never going to fully able to make sense of him, even though we can trust him."
Professor McGrath, head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture at King's College London, was the first guest speaker to address this year's convention.
He insisted that the Trinity and the Christian faith were not "irrational" and that believers need not be afraid of atheists and other critics.
"I [once] thought, this doctrine is just clearly bad mathematics, it's just nonsense. You can only trust what reason can prove. That seemed to me at the time to be a good argument against the doctrine of the Trinity. But, we need to realise there are limits to what reason can take in," he said.

"Sometimes things are so big and bright and luminous that we can't take them in. Richard Dawkins limits reality to what we can prove.
That is a terribly small and very uninteresting world. You can prove that two and two make four, but that doesn't give you a reason to get up in the morning, to live and to hope.
"Atheism presents us with a narrow little world."
He said one of the reasons atheists were so critical of Christians was because it detracted from having to look at their world and "realise how little it is".

The Christian faith, he argued, makes sense "of itself" when it is experienced "within us" and in what can be seen around us.
"Christianity doesn't go beyond reason, but recognises there are limits to reason. It opens up this great and bold picture of what things are really like.
The fact that we have difficulty in taking something in doesn't mean it is irrational, it just means our little minds find it very difficult to take in big things."
He continued: "It goes beyond what we as human beings can master and understand.

Atheism is simply a human philosophy. It says, what we can understand–that's it. What you see is what you get.
Christianity is saying: what you see is great, but it makes even more sense when you see the bigger picture and realise that what we can understand is only part of something bigger, but what we can see now is good enough to be going on with."

The Keswick Convention has been meeting in the Lake District since 1875. This year's convention got underway on Saturday and will continue until 2nd August, during which time an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people will attend.
Other speakers include mathematician Professor John Lennox from
the Oxford Centre of Christian Apologetics and CARE's executive
chairman Lyndon Bowring in the third week.

"It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." -Francis Bacon

McGrath is in error on so many points.

1. Yes, Reason has it's limits. There are things that are beyond it's grasp. Trinity is not one of such things.

Those things that are beyond Reason are ineffable, they do not lend themselves to formulations neither can they be expressed as cogent doctrines. The only proper response to such wonder and awe is to keep the mouth shut. The indescribable is by definition ... err... indescribable.

The formulation so Father Son and Holy spirit as one Trinity can by analysed by Reason because it's a statement. It can be assigned Truth values. It can be discussed. It is not beyond Reason's grasp.

2.

Professor McGrath encouraged the Christians gathered to be bold in proclaiming the Trinity, saying that it gave people a framework for understanding God.

Before I accuse him of contradicting himself I would first need to know if by 'understanding God' such understanding is done by the mind. How does one 'proclaim' something that is beyond Reason. The proclamation is done with words, in a language that has syntax, grammar, and words that have meaning. As such they must be accessible to Reason.

3.

He insisted that the Trinity and the Christian faith were not "irrational" and that believers need not be afraid of atheists and other critics.

What is the difference between Reason and Rational? If it is not 'irrational' then it must be Reasonable. But He's just used the other side of his mouth to say that Reason can't grasp it, i.e that it is not reasonable.

4.

Richard Dawkins limits reality to what we can prove.
That is a terribly small and very uninteresting world.

He's just gone and lied on Dawkins' head. I don't like Dawkins myself, but I never heard him say that reality is only what we can prove. He often talks about Science not limiting the sense of awe and wonder that we have for the universe. He often talks about things we don't yet know but we shouldn't relegate to religion because of that. So he admits of parts of reality that he hasn't yet grasped by reason, and he furthermore states that subjecting reality to reason does nothing to diminish the wonder of the universe.

5.

You can prove that two and two make four, but that doesn't give you a reason to get up in the morning, to live and to hope.

No one's ever said being able to add would give you hope. I'm disappointed that McGrath is clutching at straws like this. Everyday people all over the world get up in the morning with hope. Some are christians, some are muslims, some are atheists, some are Shintoist. You don't need to believe in irrationality in order to have hope in life.

We are instinctively hopeful creatures. Our healthy default state of being is hopeful. Even the guy living in misery has hope for tomorrow. When you lose such hope it is recognised as a mental illness. Depression.

6.

"Atheism presents us with a narrow little world."
He said one of the reasons atheists were so critical of Christians was because it detracted from having to look at their world and "realise how little it is".

I don't understand what he means here but it sounds like complete nonsense to me. What does he mean by a 'narrow little world'? Are atheist really scared of realising how little their world is? I talk to atheists who have just as much hope for tomorrow as any other sucker out there, despite the odds, and I see them excited about new discoveries, expanding their horizons, etc. So either he's resorted to lying on the head of atheists or I don't get what he is saying.


7.

The Christian faith, he argued, makes sense "of itself" when it is experienced "within us" and in what can be seen around us.
"Christianity doesn't go beyond reason, but recognises there are limits to reason. It opens up this great and bold picture of what things are really like.
The fact that we have difficulty in taking something in doesn't mean it is irrational, it just means our little minds find it very difficult to take in big things."
He continued: "It goes beyond what we as human beings can master and understand.

waxing lyrical from both sides of his mouth again. If Christianity doesn't go beyond reason then when isn't it Reasonable, as he himself declared at the start. There are limits to reason yes, but is he putting Christianity beyond the limits or within the limits. He can't seem to make up his mind.

8.

Atheism is simply a human philosophy. It says, what we can understand–that's it. What you see is what you get.
Christianity is saying: what you see is great, but it makes even more sense when you see the bigger picture and realise that what we can understand is only part of something bigger, but what we can see now is good enough to be going on with."

All ideologies are human whether Atheist philosophies or Theist philosophies.

There are many non-theistic philosophies, in fact almost all, that go beyond 'what you see is all you get'. Science talks about Force, ie. Action at a distance. Nobody has ever seen a force, all we see are it's effects. What makes apples fall to the ground? Gravitational force is just a speculatory theory by Isaac Newton. Newton can speculate a theory that it is due to the curvature of something called Space Time. Nobody has seen neither a Gravitational Force, nor a Curved Space Time. So Science does go beyond what we can see and understands that it is only 'part of something bigger'.

The difference is that the theories that non-theistic science comes up with are subjected to testing, while those of religion are excused from any testing or rigorous examination.