I understand where you are coming from....Acts17:11..I love being a Berean and searching out the scriptures whether the things being taught are really from God.....the mind does come into play ...but only under certain conditions..
Renewal of the mind is NOT faith and reason but faith and revelation. We don't throw out reason but we get our reasoning from the enlightened manifestation of the revelation of Jesus and our loving, good Father by the Holy Spirit within us.
Christians can think carnally which means with their fleshly unrenewed mind on subjects.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB)
[SUP]14 [/SUP] But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Romans 8:5-6 (NASB)
[SUP]5 [/SUP] For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
[SUP]6 [/SUP] For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
1 Corinthians 2:16 (NASB)
[SUP]16 [/SUP] For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
Ephesians 4:23-24 (NASB)
[SUP]23 [/SUP] and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
[SUP]24 [/SUP] and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Lot's of great scriptures about the mind...this one is my favorite.Colossians 3:2-3 (NASB)
[SUP]2 [/SUP] Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
[SUP]3 [/SUP] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.