Reason, Faith & Experience.

[S. V. Subrahmanian]

Oh ! I understand the limitations of logic.  What I am not able to
comprehend is that the switch between rational thinking and faith seems very
irrational (may be it is meant to be).  Look at any thread that deals with
God (excepting those that discuss scriptures and their validities), every
author, argues for some time on some issues and then "assumes" something.
All people who seem to analyse and argue logically seem to be able to do
this switcharoo so easily.  How does one decide when to stop questioning and
start accepting trustfully ?
Does faith precede reason or does reason precede faith ?  And how does faith
work ?  We can understand logic (primarily relying on the process of
induction and deduction), but how and why does faith work ?

Shri VidyaShankarji has partly answered the questions above.  I will respond
to him.

[Anyway I am reminded of what Stephen Hawking said:  "All the theories that
we propound (reference to super-string theory), can only explain HOW the
universe works.  It can never explain WHY the universe works.  For to know
it would be to know the mind of God" ]