What is “a reasoned faith?”
November 6th, 2007Last spring I began spending some time with a Freethinker group here at MSU. Doing so has been very instructive to me on a number of levels, and has made me think about a common misperception that many people, particularly atheists, have concerning the understanding of the term “faith”.
I’ve often seen a consistent dichotomy presented, where one is either logical and reasoned in their thinking, leading invariably to an unbelieving or nontheistic perspective, or one adheres to a belief system without any reason or logic.
But is Christianity truly a belief system that is predicated upon a faith that is “blind”? In other words, does Christianity ask of people to believe or trust in Jesus Christ in a vacuum, without any sound argumentation or evidence presented?
The answer is a resounding “no”.
When I decided to call entitled my blog “A Reasoned Faith”, I entitled it as such because in Biblical Christianity the term faith is defined as a confident trust and commitment to the God of the Bible that is grounded upon solid evidence, sound reasoning and logic and effective argumentation.
Contrary to popular thought espoused by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, Christianity is not a belief system that demands blind faith—trust that has lacks sound reasons to support it (an example of which one can find here, where villagers want to erect a temple to this little girl). Quite the opposite is true. Almost 2,000 years ago the Apostle John wrote:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
John, as an eyewitness to the events his Gospel records, attempted to provide those that heard the story of Jesus sound reasons for believing that He was indeed the promised Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. Far from demanding from people a commitment to believing in Jesus without valid reasons, John offered eyewitness testimony to Jesus’ miracles, death, burial, and resurrection.
Far from meaning “trust or belief without reason or evidence”, Christianity is “a reasoned faith”—a confident trust in Jesus Christ that is grounded upon solid evidence, argumentation and reason.








