Do thinking people make a "leap of faith"? Steven Waldman and Slate.

Steven Waldman, editor in chief of beliefnet, writing in an article on Slate (All Ye Faithful - Is George Bush the Christians' Christian? By Steven�Waldman) insinuates that Bush makes evangelicals look bad with his anti-intellectualism and that thinking people don't reach their faith by way of a "leap".

Do thinking people make a"leap of faith"?

Waldman's comment that, "Many Americans did not "leap" into their faith but developed it through experience" is interesting. If he is saying that thinking people don't make such a leap or that one can have faith without such a leap, he is wrong.Depending upon your perspective, faith is ultimately contrarational (Kierkegaard) or suprarational (Aquinas), but either way the leap is necessary. Thomists would say that faith goes hand in hand with reason but ultimately we see through a glass darkly so reason expires. The other approach is that at the limits of reason faith actually contradicts reason. Either way there is a leap involved but that does not mean the leap is anti-intellectual.