« Prev B. Rationality as Proper Function Next »  B. Rationality
as Proper Function  If we agree that rational creatures do and
therefore can accept Christian belief, we might ask whether it
is only malfunctioning rational creatures that do so, creatures
whose rational faculties are in some way dysfunctional. A person
who suffers from pathological confusion, or flight of ideas, or
the manic stage of bipolar disorder, or delusions (perhaps
thinking the Martians are out to get him) is said to be
irrational. Here the problem is dysfunction, malfunction of the
rational faculties. The paranoid doesn’t form beliefs in the way
a normal, properly functioning human being does; some part of
the cognitive apparatus fails to function properly.
Pathologically confused people may not know what day it is or
where they live. Such dysfunction can be long-term or episodic;
if it is the latter, then after the episode is over, we say
rationality is restored. This sense of rationality, therefore,
has to do with proper function, th