The inescapable presence of doubt is a constant reminder of our responsibility to truth in a twilight world of truth and half-truth. — Os Guinnes, In Two Minds
Many people whose faith journey that began in their childhood is often characterized by learning a variety of Bible stories in Sunday school that seemed fantastic. As our minds grew in reason and maturity these stories become even more fantastic. Combine this with what the Christian church, or many within it, has propagated as a deficient definition of faith. It should come as no surprise then that many of our youth are walking away from their beliefs when they go off to college or university. For that matter, many adults within the church are struggling as they are besieged by challenges they never saw coming from outside of the church and at times from within. Let’s set the record straight and place these ideas under interrogation.
Faith
What is this deficient definition of faith? It is one that is emotive and not grounded in any sort of reason or evidence. It is one that paints Christians as an unintelligent group of superstitious and weak-minded people that when something cannot be explained we use ‘God of the Gaps’ reasoning and say, “I can’t explain it so God did it.” This could not be farther from the truth and is predicated on misunderstanding, ignorance, and let’s face it we have let this happen. Often quoted by Christians is Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (NASB)
Many take these verses to identify “faith” as believing in what we cannot see or what we do not have evidence to believe in. This is what many characterize as having, “blind faith” or a “leap in the dark faith.” Honestly, for many, this is comfortable, familiar, and easy. There are more components to faith than just this. One may, in fact, have experiences that lead them to have a basic belief or properly basic beliefs.
Properly basic – Philosophers call beliefs which are rational to hold but not grounded on argument “properly basic beliefs.” They aren’t based on some other beliefs; rather they are part of the foundation of a person’s system of beliefs. Examples of properly basic beliefs would be things like the belief in the reality of the past (that the world wasn’t created five minutes ago with built-in appearances of age), belief in the existence of the external world around you, belief in the presence of other minds like your own.[1]
[1] William Lane Craig, “Excursus on Natural Theology Part 1”, Reasonable Faith, August 18, 2015, accessed June 17, 2019, https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-excursus-on-natural-theology/excursus-on-natural-theology-part-1
Let me be clear this forms part of any Christian’s faith life. Paul M. Gould submits, “These justified true beliefs will help us live and help us love, because we love best what we know best. The greatest commandment includes loving God with our minds: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Matt. 22:37, emphasis added).”[2] We see here that not only can properly basic beliefs and experiences form part of one’s faith, but it seems that our mind and reasoning are a vital part of it; a command it seems. We are already sketching together some different components of faith. This issue of an incorrect definition is further exacerbated by non-Christians perpetuating this belief that faith is blind, and in the past, the church has allowed this. In today’s climate truth is vital as is clarity and it is not the time to sit idly by. This brings to light the question if God encourages a “Reasonable Faith?”
Trust
I, like many others, prefer the word “trust”, or “trust in”, to define what we as Christians hold to. I also argue that an emotive faith or one where a person does not question, ponder, and learn the reasons for their faith, or trust in, is an immature faith. This is not to say there is not an emotional or volitional part to one’s faith or trust, but this could be said of more than just religious faith. C. Steven Evans submits, “To hide from problems is a sign that faith is in trouble. A belief is a belief that something is true, an accurate account of the way things really are. Evading intellectual problems sometimes is a confession that if we were to investigate things, we would find that what we believe is not the way things are.”[3]
Even an atheist must have faith. Evans posits, “The attractions of religious skepticism are more apparent than real. To claim that I know that no one else knows anything about a particular area of knowledge is to claim a certain superiority over those who claim to know.”[4] To understand the concept of “trust in”, J. Warner Wallace a retired LAPD Homicide Detective offers an excellent example of this in his book Cold Case Christianity. He describes how part of the training process for recruits is becoming familiar with the body armor issued to them. Often in police training, there may even be live demonstrations to show that body armor can stop bullets.[5]
We all need to have faith or trust in something. It is part of us to trust in things, and without it, we really could not function in life. Evans rightly submits, “Each of us has a faith-dimension. None of us can avoid faith in something or someone. We must believe in something or someone because we must have something or someone one to live for. If this is right, the hostile agnostic’s advice to suspend judgment cannot really be followed. It is not a matter of whether to have faith, but of where faith is to be exercised. Of course, this does not mean that all beliefs are reasonable, or that people should not reflect on their deepest beliefs. As we shall see, the common stereotype of faith as ‘believing without any good reasons’ rests on a naive understanding of both faith and reason.”[7]
This is a great point and Wallace’s story an excellent example of trusting in something because of having good reasons. So many people, both non-believers and believers alike, have come to think that faith and reason are antithetical to each other, but this is not the case. In the next installment of this series, we will begin to investigate this claim.
[1] William Lane Craig, “Excursus on Natural Theology Part 1”, Reasonable Faith, August 18, 2015, accessed June 17, 2019, https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-excursus-on-natural-theology/excursus-on-natural-theology-part-1
[2] Paul M. Gould, Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2019), 128, Kindle.
[3] C. Steven Evans, Why Believe?: Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), loc. 216-218, Kindle.
[4] Evans, Why Believe?, loc. 108-110, Kindle.
[5] J. Warner Wallace, Cold Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2103), 16, Kindle.
[6] Ibid., 16.
[7] Evans, Why Believe?, loc. 132-136, Kindle.