Søren Kierkegaard seems to be a striking example of one of the few rational, logician-esque individuals who attempt and succeed at compartmentalizing, and thus holding to, fundamental Christianity and logic. While I surely been influenced by my community, I have generally held the the view that compartmentalizing these two beliefs is not possible and that an individual will only be able to sustain one. However Kierkegaard seems to have come up with an elegant and effective resolution to this potential issue. He proposes that because God performs ‘miracles’, He is at odds with reason. Because logic and proof can only answer things that are not at odds with reason, they cannot answer questions about God. I have heard this idea recently from several different sources, almost always fundamentalist Christian apologists, and generally people who I both dislike and disagree with. These modern apologists seem alien to me, they have abandoned logic and reason in exchange for their beliefs, and they hold values that are almost always in opposition to my own. However, Kierkegaard holds the same basic views with these apologists but he is a man who seems to be cut from a similar cloth to my own. Kierkegaard is a logical, thoughtful man first, and a Christian second. In one striking quote, he demonstrates this conflict,”...it is easier to become a Christian when I am not a Christian than to become Christian when I am one…”. As someone who has personally disavowed Christianity, seeing this analogous conflict to my own, leads me to view his conclusions on Christianity and God in a more favorable light and may even cause me to reflect on some of my own views with more scrutiny than I have before.
As an aside; I am convinced Kierkegaard would be a great wit if he were to live in our current time, just take a look at this gem, “People rarely make use of the freedom they have, for example, freedom of thought, instead they demand freedom of speech as compensation.”
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