If Mr. Hawking is right, the answer to the question “What created the universe?” is “The laws of physics.” But what created the laws of physics? How is it that these strange and powerful laws, and these laws alone, apply to the world?
There are those who will say that the question has no answer ””that it lies at or beyond the limits of human thought. And there are those who will say that the question has an answer, but that it is answered not by reason but by faith.
I say that perhaps, in the end, they are the same position. That is what Kant believed. You find out the limits of scientific understanding, he said. And beyond those limits lies the realm of morality, commitment and trust.
I guess it depends on what you mean by scientific understanding. If you mean that scientific understanding is limited to measuring things then the gap between faith and reason is as Scruton states and faith really doesn’t have a cognitive component in addition to trust and commitment. But that certainly isn’t what Christians think. Christian faith is grounded in a publicly reasonable argument for the existence of God. Even a philosophical illiterate as myself can sense that this radical gap between faith and reason simply isn’t true to our lived reality.
Nor is the scientific method devoid of faith commitments – as the likes of Michale Polanyi have shown. Furthermore, many a contemporary understanding of ‘reason’ has far too limited a scope – as Benedict 16 tireless points out!