By Al Serrato

Sitting in traffic the other day, I once again saw the bumper sticker “Do you have faith?” It’s catchy, in a way, and in this day and age of catchphrases, I can guess why people find it useful. Maybe it’s a good discussion-generator, a way to invite a question or an answer. But Christians should be careful to understand the unintended effect that words like “faith” have on those whose worldview is intentionally secular.

When we borrow the famous milk ad for a slogan, we risk reducing faith to a commodity, like milk. Yes, we need it, and we can acquire it, and if we do, other things in life can be better, like the way cookies taste better with milk. But is faith a commodity we can acquire? Or is it something all of us already have? Something we already make use of?

I recently spoke to an atheist friend about these ideas. She told me that in her view, faith and reason are opposites. Faith, she said, means accepting things you can’t understand or explain, and reason, by contrast, is the opposite, accepting only things you can understand and explain. With this worldview, she will never be open to considering God, because, by her definition, attempting to do so would be unreasonable. Those who “have faith” can take comfort, but they have nothing to say to her. In fact, when she thinks about it, she feels a little sorry for the “faithful,” because they have stuck their heads in the sand. They may feel safe and warm, she accepts that, but the price of “not seeing things as they really are” is too high.

A more productive approach might be to point out to the secularist that she, too, is using “faith,” and to consider whose faith has a more rational basis. The first step, of course, is to clear up this misunderstanding about what “faith” really means. I would suggest a definition of “faith” as the act of trusting in something that cannot be known with complete certainty. It contains part action—trust—and part standard of proof, for lack of a better term—the degree of certainty you give to your conclusion. Contrary to my secular friend’s view, the opposite of faith is not reason, but disbelief. In other words, to lack faith in something is to believe that what is posited is not in fact true, that it does not fit with the way things really are. I have no “faith” that positive thinking will always enable me to achieve my goals. It doesn’t hurt to practice positive thinking, of course, but I don’t actively trust that things will actually work out that way. In some cases, lacking faith would mean going too far, believing that the opposite is probably true. I lack faith in my ability to jump over a tall building because I know the opposite is true.

Reason, by contrast, is not an act of trust; it is an act of thought, a process by which we arrive at conclusions based on the evaluation of the evidence we receive through our senses. It can be inductive or deductive; it can be sound or fallacious. But ultimately it is nothing more than a tool that we have access to through the use of our minds, just like the tool of sight, or hearing, or the acquisition of language. These things are simply available to any human being with a normally functioning mind. The opposite of reason is not faith, it is irrationality. If I conclude, for example, that a set of feathered wings will enable me to take flight, I am proceeding irrationally because the available evidence establishes that this simply cannot work, no matter how much “trust” I may wish to place in what I am attempting. 

Far from being opposites, then, reason and faith coexist on a continuum, with knowledge moving from things that are definitively known through observable evidence (confidence with high certainty), to things that are not definitively known but are very likely to be true (confidence with less certainty), to matters that are entirely speculative and can only be taken “on faith” (confidence with little or no support). So faith in God, like any other conclusion a person comes to, is always a product of reason, because reason is simply the only way anyone can come to a conclusion. What distinguishes sound faith from foolish faith is the strength of the evidence supporting the conclusion and the validity of the reasoning process that was used.

Let’s apply this criterion to a real-world example – say a wife wonders if her husband is worthy of her trust. Since she can’t be with him all the time, she can’t know for sure if he’s cheating on her. But she’s not totally without evidence either. You wouldn’t tell her that she simply has “faith,” as if she had no reason for her beliefs. Rather, you’d look at that situation as a continuum of knowledge. In other words, her “faith” may be solidly based on the available evidence, as in the situation where, through long-term observation and knowledge of her husband’s character, belief system, and behavior, she can be confident in placing her trust. Or her “faith” may be foolish – as in the situation where the husband claims to be faithful but has shown through his past behavior and comments that he’s not likely to resist the temptation to stray. This example shows two things: one, that faith is something we all use, even without necessarily thinking about it, because as limited beings we can’t know everything for certain; and two, that the certainty of one’s faith depends on the facts and foundations that support it. In this example, one bases her faith on logic and reason, while the other maintains her faith in spite of logic and reason.

Faith and reason are not inherently in conflict, as many secularists seem to believe. Although faith requires a step beyond what can be known with complete certainty, it is not irrational to take that step, depending on the strength of the supporting evidence. Thinkers and intelligent people throughout the ages have found no conflict in accepting that God exists and placing their trust in him.

As believers, we need to prepare to show others today that this is still true.

Recommended resources in Spanish: 

Stealing from God ( Paperback ), ( Teacher Study Guide ), and ( Student Study Guide ) by Dr. Frank Turek

Why I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist ( Complete DVD Series ), ( Teacher’s Workbook ), and ( Student’s Handbook ) by Dr. Frank Turek  

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Al Serrato earned his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. He began his career as an FBI special agent before becoming a prosecutor in California, where he continues to work. After being introduced to the works of C.S. Lewis, he became interested in apologetics, which he has pursued for the past three decades. He began writing Apologetics with J. Warner Wallace and Pleaseconvinceme.com.

Original source of the blog: https://bit.ly/3zCRrTQ 

Translated by Jennifer Chavez 

Edited by Monica Pirateque