Gamsat-essay-5 Essa practice PDF

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Practice Questions for Gamsat. Essay question and response...

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G A M S AT E S S AY 5 C OM M E N T 1 : F I T H I N D E E D T E L L S W H AT T H E S E N S E S D O N OT T E L L , B UT N OT T H E C ON T R A RY OF W H AT T H E Y S E E . I T I S A B OV E T H E M A N D N OT C ON T R A RY T O T H E M ” C OM M E N T 4 : R E A S ON S I S OUR S OUL ’S L E F T H A N D , FA I T H H E R R I G H T ”

Society today stands divided on matters of faith. Over 3000 religions exist in the world, the largest being Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. These religious individuals strongly believe and have faith in what their scriptures teach them, despite all odds and evidence. However, in recent centuries, particularly with the development of science, faith has been rejected by many on the basis that it is against logic and reason, and following a particular religion would thus be meaningless and blinding. By definition, faith is simply believing in an idea or deity, regardless of the evidence that the physical world may provide. Faith is denying our own knowledge or understanding and instead trusting in a supernatural power. And thus faith is the opposite of reason and a rejection of one’s capacity to perceive and apply logic. For example, despite the fact that the theory of evolution is now accepted by many educational and scientific institutions, Christianity rejects it, sticking firmly to its Creationist stance. In war-torn areas such as Syria, being a Christian is synonymous with persecution and death, and yet hundreds of thousands of Christians have died in the name of faith, and many more have converted to Christianity, seemingly against logic and reason. A strong faith in many religions has been measured by how one has resisted statistical likelihood and reason and depended on belief alone – for example Noah was rewarded for going against all reason and criticism and building the Ark in a climate similar to that of a desert. Indeed, Christianity tells us that faith is not needed in heaven, because by then, the existence of God would be all too reasonable to be called faith. Yet at the same time, reason drives and it intrinsic to faith. From the Christian perspective, science may tell us how the world came to being or how humans are born, but it cannot explain why. In fact, statistically speaking, the probability that even the smallest protein was able to form simply by chance from the conditions considered to exist on early earth is so small, it is almost impossible that such an event took place, even if the reaction continued for the billions of years that earth is said to have existed. Scientists have been amazed by the precision of earth’s place in the solar system – a minute distance closer to the sun and earth would burn, a minute distance further and earth would freeze. Similarly, if the earth’s axial rotation was slightly faster then the earth would crumple in on itself, slightly slower and gravity would not hold us in place. Yet scientists claim that evolution and chance has led to our precise existence. It may perhaps be more reasonable to believe in some supernatural designer as the creationists do. Indeed, simply blindingly following any concept would not be termed faith – it would be termed insanity. It has been proven that people of faith can process logical and reasonable thought. Thus faith is driven and maintained perhaps by another route of reason that supersedes the reason that prevails in the majority of the population.

Faith by definition is against reason and logic and often involves disregarding sensible conclusions made from one’s reasoning of statistics or worldly evidence. However, many people who have faith in a supernatural existence certainly do so after considerable reasoning and thinking – it is impossible that religion has been maintained through thousands of years through mere collective insanity. Thus faith is also supported and driven by one’s capacity to reason. Words 582 Time: 30 minutes!! + 5 minutes reading...