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An MIT Student’s Discovery of Faith
Reason and Faith are not necessarily incompatible
I became a Christian at MIT. Think about that for a second. MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is associated with high-achieving technologists and scientists. It’s a place where logic, rationality, and dispassionate reason are supposed to reign supreme. It is also a place where practicality is enshrined, according to the school’s motto, mens et manus, which is Latin for mind and hands.
The motto refers to using one’s mind for achieving tangible results, not simply thinking deep thoughts. Ideally, one’s thoughts were to be used to improve reality.
MIT’s motto implies human control, while faith implies control being ceded. How was it possible for an MIT student to become a person of faith?
Yet I became a Christian there, and I might not have anywhere else.
When I left high school, I had become an Objectivist. I had devoured the books of Ayn Rand, including her tomes — Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. But I’d also read her shorter works and her non-fiction. At one time I thought the woman was a genius, and I still do.
