Reconciling Reason and ReligionThe notion of Enlightened Reason

Religion does not grant you the right to be unreasonable.
Unreasonable by whose or what standards? This becomes the basis for an analysis of reason itself.
Reason is built on two important foundations: axioms of assumptions and logical relationships born of those assumptions.
The axioms may be (i) empirically tested and proved (i.e. in the material plane) or (ii) inferred from a set of behavioral conditions (i.e. in the non-material plane).
These axioms and the logical relationships derived from them have led broadly to the physical sciences (on the material plane), and the social sciences (on the social / personal / interpersonal plane).
Where does ‘reason’ (as opposed to faith) sit? In the realm of matter? In the realm of society? On in some other space.
The answer to this question comes when we recognize that the fundamental axiom on which religion itself is based is neither knowledge nor experience at either the physical plane or the social plane. Religion is based on realization at the plane of the human being. This we call “Enlightened Reason”.
Enlightened Reason is those sets of axioms and assumptions that can be tested and verified in the context of a human being and his/ her realization of the highest truth.
This realization of the highest truth, variously spoken of as love, character, truth, consciousness, devotion, mystical experience, compassion, dedication, etc. manifests itself:
1. at the first and most basic level as complete and utter respect for human beings everywhere;
2. at the second level as the willingness to let go of a single point of view and be accepting and accommodating of multiple points of view;
3. at the third level as the capacity to manifest one’s own unity with others as comprising of the same parentage (in dualistic terms) and as comprising of the same existence (in non-dualistic terms).
4. at the fourth level as the capacity to transcend narrow boundaries of language, faith and notion and see the essential unity and destiny of man as the only thread that binds all together.
5. at the fifth and highest level as the capacity to live in the consciousness of man as one with all other men where love is interpreted as absolute identity, and character as a recognition of non-separateness.
Enlightened Reason proposes that all religious practices, norms, injunctions, and exhortations must be verified in the context of this view of man.