The Contradiction of Faith and Reason

Books. Wonderful, glorious books. As a child, books held magic for me. Magic, in a metaphorical sense, and also in a literal one; fantasy was my passion. Nothing excited my young brain more than great heroes, enchanted swords, wizards, monsters, and anything else that the innumerable authors filling my shelves could concoct.

These stories of epic adventures and amazing exploits inspired me. They sparked and nurtured my creativity. I cannot help but believe that they were imperative in shaping my development. It is as if I can still feel them inside of me.

I am sure most can remember certain volumes that took them to that incredible place of imagination as a child. Literature is universal; it is the transition of word of mouth, the art of storytelling, into permanence. The written word is a vital part of every culture, specifically in terms of recording history, codifying law, and the development of society. Literature exists in so many different forms as well, from magazines to encyclopedias to biographies to novels, and much more. Even the foundation for most religions lies within the realm of literature. The Old and New Testaments, the Koran, and even the teachings of the Eightfold Path of Buddha, all stem from the written word.

These holy texts are imperative to the practice of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and so on. In fact, I feel that these great works are representative of the unimaginable power of ideas and literature. Are they not simply the recorded thoughts and ideas of ancient religious minds? Certainly they are, and the transposition of thought to word is what makes literature, literature. “The interior space of our imagination,” Salman Rushdie writes on the subject, “is a theatre that can never be closed down; the images created there make up a movie that can never be destroyed.” The human psyche is boundless, and whether one puts to paper a cookbook with recipes for cookies or some great work with a recipe for living one’s life in accordance with an external belief, one has created literature.

However, Mr. Rushdie seems to take things in the opposite direction. He believes there is a fundamental difference which creates a permanent rift between literature and religion. Rushdie says, “…whereas religion seeks to privilege one language above all others, one set of values above all others, one text above all others, the novel has always been about the way in which different languages and narratives quarrel, and about the shifting relations between them, which are relations of power.” While his words do hold the ring of truth, I feel there is something that Rushdie has forgotten. It all depends on how one views and interprets these different religious texts. I believe that what Rushdie is trying to contend with is not religion itself, but fundamentalist religious belief, shutting out all other ideas for the sake of one all-encompassing truth.