Board index ‹ Faith and Knowledge

[Hologram]

Google defines fideism as: the doctrine that knowledge depends on faith or revelation. Basically I interpret that to mean that blind faith is just as valid as knowledge. However, I would argue that many people who believe without reason aren't true christians because of calls to action in the bible like 1 Peter 3:15. My question is, Do people who believe that knowledge depends on faith think of themselves as true christians even when many denominations (Including the catholic church) call it sinful?

[jimwalton]

Jesus never said faith is blind, and the Bible doesn't imply that faith is blind. In the Bible, faith is evidentiary. I define Biblical faith as "making an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make that assumption reasonable." In my opinion, belief is always a choice, and is always based on evidence. When you sit down in a chair, you didn’t think twice about sitting down. You believe that the chair will hold you. Faith? Yes. You’ve sat in chairs hundreds of times, but you can't be absolutely sure it will hold you this time. Things do break on occasion. But you make an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make it reasonable for you to make that assumption, and you sit down. That’s faith, and it was a conscious choice.

Almost all of life works this way because we can never know what lies ahead. Every time you turn a door knob you are expressing faith. Because 10,000 times you’ve turned a door knob, and it opened the door. So you turn the knob and move forward. Does it always work that way? No. Sometimes you turn the knob and the door doesn’t open. But you make an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make it reasonable for you to make that assumption.

We know chairs hold people. That's past experience and learning. We know turning door knobs open doors. We know that when we turn a key a car starts. But every time we turn a car key, we do it because we believe it will start. The evidence is compelling, and it was a conscious choice. We don't know for sure that the car will start, and unfortunately sometimes it doesn't. Then we use our knowledge to try to figure out what to do about it. We dial our phone (as an act of faith, assuming it will work and help us reach another person), and try to get help.

You'll notice in the Bible that evidence precedes faith. God appears to Moses in a burning bush before he expect him to believe. He gave signs to take back to Pharaoh and the Israelite people, so they could see the signs before they were expected to believe. So also through the whole OT. In the NT, Jesus started off with turning water into wine, healing some people, casting out demons, and then he taught them about faith. And they couldn't possibly understand the resurrection until there was some evidence to go on.

My faith in God is a conscious choice because I find the evidence compelling. It's an assumption of truth based on enough evidence to make it reasonable for me to make that assumption. When you read the Bible, people came to Jesus to be healed because they had heard about other people who had been healed. They had seen other people whom Jesus had healed. People had heard him teach. Their faith was based on evidence. Jesus kept giving them new information, and they gained new knowledge from it. Based on that knowledge, they acted with more faith. People came to him to make requests. See how it works? My belief in God is based on my knowledge of the credibility of those writings, the logic of the teaching, and the historical evidence behind it all. The resurrection, for instance, has evidences that give it credibility that motivate me to believe in it. My faith in the resurrection is an assumption of truth based on enough evidence that makes it reasonable to hold that assumption. The same is true for my belief in the existence of God, my belief that the Bible is God's word, and my understanding of how life works.

I would contend that faith is never blind.

[Wolo]

I've long tried to convince people that there's a difference between 'informed' faith and 'blind' faith. When you drive on the road, you have faith that the other drivers are reasonably competent. You can't know for certain (and accidents do happen) but for the most part your beliefs are well founded. They all had to pass the driving test, right?

[jimwalton]

See, I don't even think there IS such a thing as blind faith, but that's my perspective. All faith is based on some evidence. If a person I don't know said, "Jump off this cliff and you'll get a reward," I wouldn't do it unless I had some evidence to convince me this was a prudent course of action. Nobody would. If a *friend* of mine said it, I might do it because I trust my friend (evidence). I don't think anybody does anything just blindly. There are always reasons based on at least some evidence for what we think and do. Even a child in a grade-school classroom "blindly" believes his or her teacher, because there is informed reason to believe the teacher. I don't even believe there is such a thing as blind faith, but especially in Christianity. All of our faith is based in evidence.

[Wolo]

That's pretty much what I believe, but I try not to overstate my beliefs because I get a ton of resistance.

[jimwalton]

Yeah, we can't be cowed by the resistance. Resistance, especially on reddit, is to be expected, but even with our friends there's a lot of resistance. I still need to stand, as you well know and do also, on what is right and true. Be encouraged.