Everyone acts based on what they truly
believe; what they have faith in. Christians, Hindus, Jews, and yes,
even atheists all have faith. The standard Biblical definition is, “faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews
11:1 NIV). However, I’d like to use a slightly broader working
definition of faith for this discussion so that I will not be accused of
applying a Christian definition to non-Christians. That definition of
faith is:
I am not taking liberty to redefine a word to suit my arguments.
Most dictionaries have similar a definition. This definition is just a
fairly short common one.
Let me explain what I meant when I said everyone acts based on their faith. It is easily seen in everyday events. Are you sitting down as you read this? Did you have a structural engineer come and examine the chair before you sat down to verify it would hold your weight? Did you run tests with weighted dummies? Surely you did not. You did not absolutely prove the chair would hold your weight, yet you sat down anyway. You acted on your faith in the chair’s ability to hold you up; although you know in the back of your mind that in the past chairs have broken when others have sat on them.
You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I have historical evidence that the chair would hold my weight. I was not acting out of any kind of faith.” You may have sat down in that chair 1,000 times before. That does not preclude the possibility of it falling apart on the 1,001st time you sit on it. You have to admit the chair will fall apart at some point. Generally, that takes a very long time, but manufacturing flaws happen which reduce how long chairs last. You are assuming you do not have one of those chairs. Even with historical evidence, you are still acting from faith.
Now you may be thinking that you were not acting out of faith when you sat in your chair, but merely playing the odds as it were. You knew there was a possibli.ity of the chair collapsing. But, the chances of the chair falling to pieces when you sat on it were so small it was not worth the effort to confirm it would not. That is a very reasonable thing to do. In fact, we could not function as productive individuals if we did not act in such a way. Those who have no trust at all in these types of things are either heavily medicated or locked away to prevent them from harming others.
Let’s drive down the road of acting based on probability and see where it leads. If you live in this way, how do you determine what is a reasonable risk and what is not? We have already proven that sitting in a chair with merely a visual inspection is a reasonable risk. However, running across a busy road without looking certainly is not a reasonable risk. Our life experiences, lessons taught by our parents and others, and knowledge of the fate of others who tried similar things help us to determine what is reasonable and what is not. Clearly what one person thinks is reasonable may not be to another person; as you hear about people doing things that are clearly stupid and unreasonable all the time. So, if each person is coming up with what they think is reasonable, what is the underlying foundation of that reasonableness? You must believe in your ability to correctly determine the odds of something being dangerous or you would be in that group of nonfunctional, heavily medicated folks mentioned earlier. Are all people given extensive training in probabilities and statistics? Do people do extensive research into chair failures to come up with a probability of when their chair may fail? Of course not; well not 99.99999% of people anyway. So, in the end we act out of faith in our ability to determine if something is dangerous or not.
Yes, sitting down is a pretty trivial example, but it shows how pervasive faith is in our lives. Let’s leave trivialities and move on to matters of substance. You will notice the discussion of faith above had absolutely nothing to do with religion. Those who embrace a religion freely admit that faith is very important to them. But, those who deny God tend to say they live without any kind of faith. I think we have already proven how weak that statement truly is. No one can be ABSOLUTELY sure of anything on this earth! We can be VERY sure of things, but we are too limited to be able to know the full truth about anything.
I know some of you are thinking, “I know that God exists.” Do you? Can you PROVE that to any person and leave no room for doubt? If you could, you would not have a faith in God but a proof of God. One day our faith will become sight (Rom 14:11), but for now we live by faith (2 Cor 5:7).
To the scientifically minded, this talk of faith may seem like nonsense. They only believe what they can prove through science. Do they? Scientist base MOST of what they believe on the authority of others. If every scientist had to prove every fact on which they would base further work, we would have very few scientific or technological advances. In fact, we would have no advances, since we cannot absolutely prove anything. C.S. Lewis talks about how we accept authority in Mere Christianity:
Scientists have faith in the findings of those who have gone before them.
If we cannot absolutely prove anything and we must accept things on the authority of others, do we just give up trying to know if anything is true? Absolutely not! We merely accept our humble position of not being the definers of truth. We must accept our role as seekers of truth; knowing that we cannot know with absolute certainty what that truth is. We look to see which things seem to be the truest. My next blog will delve into some of those things, but there is too much to even skim the surface now.
To leave no doubt as to where I stand, I believe the most enduring and reasonable truth to be Jesus. Yes I said Jesus, not the Bible. Jesus is the truth, not the Bible. The Bible is a reflection of the truth and our best resource to know the truth, but it is not the truth itself.
Living by Faith
So, we all live based on our faith. We have different ways of determining our faith in different areas of our lives. Obviously, some areas are more important than others: chairs versus God. It is important to know your faith in any area is based on a reasonable and trustworthy foundation!
Trusting something you cannot completely prove.
Absolute Certainty
Let me explain what I meant when I said everyone acts based on their faith. It is easily seen in everyday events. Are you sitting down as you read this? Did you have a structural engineer come and examine the chair before you sat down to verify it would hold your weight? Did you run tests with weighted dummies? Surely you did not. You did not absolutely prove the chair would hold your weight, yet you sat down anyway. You acted on your faith in the chair’s ability to hold you up; although you know in the back of your mind that in the past chairs have broken when others have sat on them.
Historical Evidence
You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I have historical evidence that the chair would hold my weight. I was not acting out of any kind of faith.” You may have sat down in that chair 1,000 times before. That does not preclude the possibility of it falling apart on the 1,001st time you sit on it. You have to admit the chair will fall apart at some point. Generally, that takes a very long time, but manufacturing flaws happen which reduce how long chairs last. You are assuming you do not have one of those chairs. Even with historical evidence, you are still acting from faith.
Probability
Now you may be thinking that you were not acting out of faith when you sat in your chair, but merely playing the odds as it were. You knew there was a possibli.ity of the chair collapsing. But, the chances of the chair falling to pieces when you sat on it were so small it was not worth the effort to confirm it would not. That is a very reasonable thing to do. In fact, we could not function as productive individuals if we did not act in such a way. Those who have no trust at all in these types of things are either heavily medicated or locked away to prevent them from harming others.
Let’s drive down the road of acting based on probability and see where it leads. If you live in this way, how do you determine what is a reasonable risk and what is not? We have already proven that sitting in a chair with merely a visual inspection is a reasonable risk. However, running across a busy road without looking certainly is not a reasonable risk. Our life experiences, lessons taught by our parents and others, and knowledge of the fate of others who tried similar things help us to determine what is reasonable and what is not. Clearly what one person thinks is reasonable may not be to another person; as you hear about people doing things that are clearly stupid and unreasonable all the time. So, if each person is coming up with what they think is reasonable, what is the underlying foundation of that reasonableness? You must believe in your ability to correctly determine the odds of something being dangerous or you would be in that group of nonfunctional, heavily medicated folks mentioned earlier. Are all people given extensive training in probabilities and statistics? Do people do extensive research into chair failures to come up with a probability of when their chair may fail? Of course not; well not 99.99999% of people anyway. So, in the end we act out of faith in our ability to determine if something is dangerous or not.
Heavier Matters
Yes, sitting down is a pretty trivial example, but it shows how pervasive faith is in our lives. Let’s leave trivialities and move on to matters of substance. You will notice the discussion of faith above had absolutely nothing to do with religion. Those who embrace a religion freely admit that faith is very important to them. But, those who deny God tend to say they live without any kind of faith. I think we have already proven how weak that statement truly is. No one can be ABSOLUTELY sure of anything on this earth! We can be VERY sure of things, but we are too limited to be able to know the full truth about anything.
I know some of you are thinking, “I know that God exists.” Do you? Can you PROVE that to any person and leave no room for doubt? If you could, you would not have a faith in God but a proof of God. One day our faith will become sight (Rom 14:11), but for now we live by faith (2 Cor 5:7).
To the scientifically minded, this talk of faith may seem like nonsense. They only believe what they can prove through science. Do they? Scientist base MOST of what they believe on the authority of others. If every scientist had to prove every fact on which they would base further work, we would have very few scientific or technological advances. In fact, we would have no advances, since we cannot absolutely prove anything. C.S. Lewis talks about how we accept authority in Mere Christianity:
Do not be scared by the word authority.
Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have
been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety—nine percent
of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is
such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove
by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it
because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in
the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on
authority – because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in
the world is believed on authority. None one us has seen the Norman
Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by
pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply
because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about
them: in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority in other
things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know
nothing all his life.
Scientists have faith in the findings of those who have gone before them.
Weigh the Evidence
If we cannot absolutely prove anything and we must accept things on the authority of others, do we just give up trying to know if anything is true? Absolutely not! We merely accept our humble position of not being the definers of truth. We must accept our role as seekers of truth; knowing that we cannot know with absolute certainty what that truth is. We look to see which things seem to be the truest. My next blog will delve into some of those things, but there is too much to even skim the surface now.
To leave no doubt as to where I stand, I believe the most enduring and reasonable truth to be Jesus. Yes I said Jesus, not the Bible. Jesus is the truth, not the Bible. The Bible is a reflection of the truth and our best resource to know the truth, but it is not the truth itself.
Living by Faith
So, we all live based on our faith. We have different ways of determining our faith in different areas of our lives. Obviously, some areas are more important than others: chairs versus God. It is important to know your faith in any area is based on a reasonable and trustworthy foundation!
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