The elements of religious belief: cognition, intuition and hope

<A few months ago we did a podcast episode with Bill Newsome, a Stanford neuroscientist who is also a Christian. He gave a fascinating characterization of religious faith: “I often say that I think religious belief is about one third cognitive assent, and about one third intuition, and about one third sheer unadulterated hope.”

Our faith does involve a cognitive component—my pastor friend will be glad to hear that! We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he rose from the dead. Newsome didn’t expand on what he meant by “intuition” there, but I suspect it is something like “what seems reasonable to us.” And then the rest is sheer, unadulterated hope.

The older I get, the less I think I know—at least with certainty—and the more I hope. In my earlier days, I might have put Newsome’s percentages for religious faith to be closer to 75% cognitive assent, 20% intuition, and only 5% sheer unadulterated hope. Now I’m more comfortable with those things in thirds.

It is important here to understand that “sheer unadulterated hope” isn’t just wishful thinking (President Deb Haarsma made that point in her article on hope a couple of weeks ago). Rather, I’m taking hope much more in the sense of what I’m committed to. I want it to be true, yes, but I’m also acting in the expectation that it really is true. I may not be able to prove it to the satisfaction of the cognitive element, but I am “all in” committing myself to the truth of the Christian story.>

https://biologos.org/post/living-like-a-narnian-finding-hope-in-dark-days/