On when reason is not enough

I think many writers – C.S. Lewis is a very good example – would say that our experience of beauty or our sense of transcendence are very important pointers to the existence of God, or indeed, to a realm beyond our experience which in some way impacts on us here and now. And, of course, there are many rationalists who would say that is simply nonsense, it’s irrational, it’s superstition.

But actually the point that someone like Lewis would say is that these are deep human intuitions; that there is more to life than we’re able to grasp through reason; and these intuitions may be saying to us we need to expand our imaginative horizons and embrace something which really is there, but which is unable to be discerned by reason alone. If you and I were to limit reality to what reason could prove, then we’re going to inhabit a very small and very inadequate world.