Define Your Terms: Faith

Words can take on different connotations and even meanings in different spaces. Right now, you and I have the ability to communicate with each other because we have agreed that certain words have certain meanings. When I say, “cloud,” you know that I am talking about a white or grey, fluffy-looking mass of water vapor up in the sky. But what happens when we don’t agree on the meaning of a word? We can’t communicate. We might fight, become confused, feel unheard or misunderstood. We are limited in our ability to hold a discussion, to debate well, and to solve problems together.

This happens a lot at the intersection of science and faith and in many cases, we may not even be aware of our clashing definitions. If I told you to look at a “cloud” shaped like a turtle, but I didn’t mean “a white or grey fluffy-looking mass of water vapor in the sky,” you might search for a turtle-shaped white or grey fluffy-looking mass of water vapor in the sky for quite a long time before giving up… then never know that I was actually trying to bring something else to your attention. How would you ever know? You’ve always thought “cloud” meant “white or grey fluffy-looking mass of water vapor in the sky” and have no reason to think I may have meant anything else by the word.

In this series, I would like to survey key terms that pop up in science-faith discussions and wreak havoc. Defining our terms allows us to communicate, which in turn, allows us to discuss, debate, and solve problems together again.

term 4: FAITH

“What is faith? It is belief in the absence of evidence.”

“The claims of science rely on experimental verification, while the claims of religions rely on faith.”

“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”

Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Voltaire supplied our opening quotes. As you might know already, all three of these men have expressed anti-religion sentiments publicly. And all three of these men have also mischaracterized faith in their attack of it. They see science and reason as both contrary and superior to faith, but this isn’t because faith and reason actually clash. It’s because they have their definitions of “faith” all wrong.

Faith Is A Theological Term

Just like science has the authority to define scientific terms, such as “evolution,” theology has the authority to define theological terms. “Faith” is one of those theological terms that has been redefined outside of theology to mean something different in popular culture than it means within the church walls. Yet, even though this redefinition is foreign to the way the Bible uses the word, it has a tendency to shape common interpretations.

“Faith” as it is described in scripture, and therefore by Christianity, is this:

Trust.

That’s it.

Faith in God is trusting that what God says about himself is true, including that he will keep his promises.

Biblical Faith Includes Reason

Hebrews 11:1 provides the most straightforward definition of faith in the Bible, saying, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Note that “hope” as it is used in the New Testament refers to a guarantee, not like “I hope the weather stays nice through the afternoon.”) There is an element of not knowing in biblical faith, yes, but it is not without reason or evidence.

Hebrews 11 goes on to list example after example of faith exhibited by people documented in the Old Testament. Verse 8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Did Abraham know where he was going? The text says no. Did Abraham know who was sending him? Yes. He knew God, he knew the character of God, and he knew the power of God. Abraham knew that God was trustworthy. Abraham had evidence. He didn’t blindly follow the mysterious commands of a voice from the sky, as some might imagine. He followed the commands of One he knew and trusted.

When it comes to faith in Christ (or you could say, trust in Christ), the situation is the same. There is evidence that Jesus really was who he said he was.* Reason can bring us to a place of believing Jesus existed, was divine, died and rose again. Faith, then, is the means by which we, knowing by reason who he is, can trust what he has said.

Faith Loves Reason. Fideism Hates It.

So the “faith is the absence of reason” definition doesn’t describe the faith of the Bible.

It does, in many ways, describe a flawed philosophy called fideism.

Fideism is like the opposite of scientism. Like scientism claims that science is the only legitimate way of knowing, faith claims that faith, specifically faith in what scripture says, is the only legitimate way of knowing. I believe that scripture is a reliable source of knowledge, even that it is infallible and inerrant.** Scripture is the word of God. But God has blessed humanity with a multitude of ways of knowing that certainly does not stop at scripture (including empirical evidence and logic and reason). Fideism is the true target of atheistic critique (though atheist critics may not even be aware of it). And fideism is not biblical faith.

Some Better Definitions of Faith

“Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods” (C.S. Lewis)

“Faith is reason grown courageous.” (Sherwood Eddy)

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” (Corrie ten Boom)

*If you want to know the evidence, check out The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, and chapter 13 of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek

**Again, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist covers this (chapters 11 and 14)