Faith is believing without evidence?

FAITH

New Testament

Noun: πίστις (pistis), GK 4411 (S 4102), 243x. pistis means “belief, trust, confidence,” though it can also mean “faithfulness.”

As I wrote in my previous post, I am in the journey of seeking the knowledge and truth and to answer the question of why I believe what I believe. When I asked my fellow Christians why do you believe what do you believe, most of them would answer they believe because of personal experiences or because they were raised in Christian household. Now, these answers are not enough for me.

Because I discovered most religious or spiritual people would answer the same. Most of people would have experiential or inherited faith.

Maybe you think, so what? why is it such a big thing? Why does it matter?

The problem with those answers is these kind of faiths is difficult to express to others or to share with others. As intense of the experience, it's still very subjective. It'll hard to stand against scepticism on the truth of Christianity. And, in my very own experience, I became a believer because of an experience but the amazing experience I had couldn't sustain my faith in hardships.

Sceptics often define faith as religious concept of believing without evidence and one of the atheists objections to religion that people tend to inherit the faith in which they brought up, that it's just a matter of heredity and environment, and not a matter of truth.

If we believe without evidence could it be a matter of luck? We hope that at the end of the day we're getting it right in opposed of truly knowing that it's based on truth and what we believe is true. In an online philosophy class I enroll taught by Professor Duncan Pritchard of the University of Edinburgh, I learn about "knowing versus getting it right" with a very good example to explain it.

"Imagine two jurors. They both believe that a certain person is guilty of the crime. But in one case a juror believes it simply out of prejudice: they haven’t looked at the evidence, they’ve just formed a gut reaction against someone on the basis of prejudice that they’re guilty. Now imagine the second juror who believes the person’s guilty but believes that they’re guilty because they’ve actually looked at all the evidence and weighed it up and they’ve worked out that this person has to be the culprit who bases his belief on prejudice clearly doesn’t know: it’s just random that he’s got things right, and so he’s chanced on the truth. The juror that’s actually done the work of weighing up all the evidence, he does know. So knowing is getting to the truth in the right kind of way.

There are various intuitions that are being elicited here about the nature of knowledge. I’m going to mention two of them. They may well amount to the same thing, they may be two sides of the same coin.

1. The first intuition is sometimes called the anti-luck intuition.

It’s that when you know, it is not a random matter that you get things right. It’s not a matter of luck that you get things right. The juror that believes that the defendant is guilty based on prejudice – it is just a matter of luck that he gets it right. The juror that bases his belief on evidence – it is not a matter of luck that he got things right, it’s because he formed his belief in the right kind of way and that’s why he has got a true belief.

2. The second is the ability intuition. It’s that when you know, you get to the truth through your abilities. So think of our juror who has sifted through the evidence. He had abilities that he brought to bear which got him to the truth. Unlike the juror that formed his belief based on prejudice: his abilities didn’t play any role in getting to the truth."

To put it in the context of faith, it's necessary to form our faith based on evidence and to get the truth through our abilities (cognitive), so the faith is not a random matter of luck but the true belief.

With all that being said, in the hope of getting the truth and form my belief in the right kind of way biblically, I want to share some of the things I've learned about faith.

Lesson #1 Christian faith is evidential faith

It may sound oxymoron to define faith as evidential because what's the point of faith if we have reasonings or evidence. If we need evidence, is it possible that we're just lack of faith?

Without further ado, let's dive in to learn directly from Jesus himself.

John 5:31-40 NIV

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

From these verses, we can see that Jesus gives evidence, but it doesn't mean Jesus testimony about himself is untrue because it can't be untrue (In John 8:14 NIV it's written,

“Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going).

What happened is Jesus knows what's in the mind of the Jewish leaders, and in anticipating and revealing their thoughts, Jesus gives them the evidence to confirm His identity as Messiah and as Son of God. The evidence Jesus offers are four witnesses. As you may know in the tradition (as written in Deuteronomy 17:6), it requires two or three witnesses to be a valid testimony.

The testimony about Jesus comes from four witnesses :

1. God the Father (verses 32, 37, 38);

God the Father himself testified can be refer to the Father’s revealing work, including Scripture (verses 38–39) and at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:17).

When we look at Matthew 3:16-17 NIV

"16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

Jesus’ baptism becomes the occasion for God himself to testify to Jesus and to give his voice of approval at Jesus’ baptism. The voice from heaven in Verse 17 combines snippets from Psalm 2:7 NIV

7 "I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father..”

and from Isaiah 42:1 NIV

42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations".

2. John the Baptist (verses 33–35);

John's testimony of Jesus can be seen in John 1:32-34 NIV :

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

In John 5:34, Jesus says

"Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved",

which means Jesus himself doesn’t not need human testimony because the Father himself has given His testimony in favor of Jesus, so Jesus doesn’t depend primarily on John the Baptist’s witness to establish who he is. But, Jesus mentions John the Baptist’s witness for the sake of his hearers because at that time John the Baptist's testimony is relevant for the his hearers and it may help them to believe.

3. His own works (verse 36); and

Jesus' works include all of Jesus’ ministry, including his “signs” and his work of redemption accomplished in the cross and resurrection. Everything Jesus does attests to who he is and who the Father is since all that Jesus does is nothing more and nothing less than what the Father gives him to do.

An example of Jesus' works is in Matthew 9:2-8 NIV,

2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

When we look at these verses, three signs of Jesus' divinity are shown: (1) He knows the secrets of hearts; (2) He forgives sins, a power which belongs to God alone; and (3) He heals by the power of His word. And, what interesting is Jesus doesn’t only heal the paralyzed man but He also says “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” because Jesus wants the teachers of law to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, and he provides them the evidence of His authority by healing the paralyzed man. It's easier to say your sins are forgiven because nobody would know if it's really happen or not, but by healing the paralyzed man, Jesus shows that He has the authority to forgive sins.

4. the Old Testament Scriptures, through which Moses and others gave testimony (verses 39–40).

As written in Matthew 5:17-18 NIV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished",

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Scriptures.

Another passage to read related to this topic is in Luke 24:25-27 NIV

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Lesson #2 Faith is not blind

Faith is often misunderstood as believing without evidence or "blind faith". This popular term could hurt Christianity because when we define faith as believing without evidence we say that Christian faith has no support and that Christians are fools to believe Jesus without thoughtful evidence. To the extreme, blind faith can be dangerous, because without evidence people can justified anything they do on the basis of religions. History of the humanity has shown us how blind faith did more damages than goodness.

One of the popular verse that frequently used to justify blind faith is in John 20:29 NIV

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

This seems like an affirmation from Jesus about blind faith. But, does it?

This is an example of taking a bible verse out of context. The minimum effort we can do to understand the whole idea or the moral of the story is to refrain ourselves from only reading a verse but to read the whole passage and to try to get the unit of thoughts of the passage.

So... shall we?

John 20 : 24-30 NIV

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

When we look at verse 25, the other disciples told Thomas that they have seen Jesus, but he didn't believe them. He wanted to see the nail marks, put his finger where the nails were and put his hand into Jesus' side. Thomas didn't believe the testimony of the other disciples. He wanted or rather demanded an extra proof. He demanded the basic factual evidence for resurrection, i.e. the body. And what did Jesus do to the doubt of Thomas? He didn't reject Thomas, rather He offered him the evidence and Thomas believed after he saw Jesus and he made the confession of faith when he said "My Lord and my God!". Jesus said "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." In this statement Jesus seems to support the blind faith by blessing to those who have not seen and seems to compare the faith in Thomas and the other believers. This verse also often misunderstood as a rebuke. But If we pay attention to the next verses, John 20:30-31, actually the contrast is not that Thomas’s faith is inferior to that of other believers, as if faith that is not based in signs is superior, rather, the contrast is between the first generation of believers, like Thomas, who were witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, and all later generations that have not seen and yet have believed. In 1 Peter 1:8 NIV it is written

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, which means the believers believed Jesus resurrection even though they didn't see it.

John 20:30 is the perfect climax for the whole book of John because even though not all the signs are recorded in the book, his whole Gospel is written to show the truth of Jesus’ Messiahship and to present him as the Son of God, so that the readers of the Gospel may believe in Jesus (verse 31). So the significance of the Thomas narrative for the readers of Gospel of John is that Thomas believed because he saw; blessed are those (John’s readers, now including us) who believe on the basis of this Gospel, without otherwise seeing.

So, blessed are we who also don't see Him but believe in Him, with the help of the evidence of the eyewitness in the Gospel.

Hope now you can see that the verse "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" doesn't affirm blind faith but it gives us the evidence for our faith through the evidence of the eyewitness.

Another verse that often being used to affirm the blind faith is in 2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV 7

For we live by faith, not by sight.

And like always, we need to read the whole passage.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 NIV

5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

So...

I guess it's pretty clear that the passage has nothing to do with blind faith. It's talking about how our earthly tent is our present mortal body and the building from God is the immortal body we shall have in heaven. In this passage, Paul longs not for death but for resurrection; he knows God created us not to die, but to be transformed from mortality to life. So he speaks not of the bliss of the soul without a body, but of the union of the soul with the glorified body. Being always confident in verse 6 means to be confident in the resurrection.

Another verse related to this can be read in :

2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

It's talking about how the experiences and circumstances of this present life are visible to the Christian; but these are merely temporary and fleeting. The unseen realities, which are no less real for being invisible, are eternal and imperishable so we should look up and away from the impermanent appearances of this present world scene.

Well..

So far, I found no verses support the blind faith argument, and even Jesus himself gives evidence and He never ask His disciples to believe blindly or to just take a leap of faith. I think that shows me how God is good and how He loves us that He gives us so many evidence in the Bible so we can have a thoughtful evidential faith. I believe in His love and logically I know He’ll never let anyone wandering in the unknown and try to figure things by themselves so that’s why He gives us the Scriptures where we can learn and know about Him. Our faith has support and even though I am still in my journey of seeking the truth, I can say that from the beginning I believe that if it’s true it’ll stand. Maybe some would say, “well it’s easier for you to say because of the bias and you’re already a Christian, you could say that the Scriptures (the Bible) has provided the evidence we need to support the faith, but how do you know it is true?”. It’s one of the questions that drive me to do this journey because I want to know the truth. And that’s why I love studying about it, so far I discover so many supporting resources to help me in my journey and to give the arguments in the reliability of the Bible. But that’ll be another post. :)

Last but not least,

There's one verse that kept showing up in this ‘faith project’. So, even though I am still reading and studying the book, I think I'll share a little about what I've learned about this specific verse.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

People often use this verse to define the meaning of faith (a bit like a definition in the dictionary), but this is not that type of definition. It is a description of how faith works, especially during hard times. When we read the book of Hebrews from the Chapter 1 to 13, we can see the big statement of the book is to encourage Jewish Christians discouraged by persecution to recommitting to the new reality brought by Jesus by showing the final realities God has revealed in the new covenant in the temporary ones of the first covenant.

The description of faith focuses on things hoped for and not seen, both are talking about a vision of the future, that have encouraged the people of God throughout history where the invisible is often more real than the visible. We can see the examples of faith in Hebrews where in the past, mighty works of faith were done by those whose faith was unfulfilled

Hebrews 11:39 NIV 39 these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Does that mean they had blind faith? Of course not, because they had their evidences, whether it's an angelic visit or God spoke to them, God showed them His love, kindness, protection, God revealed himself to them. They believed that He exists, a living God, not a manmade idol. They pleased Him and He rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6 NIV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Back to Hebrews 11:1 "things hoped for and not seen" doesn't mean believing blindly or without evidence but it's about having a confidence in God about the future, where we as the ones who have inherited the promise, we should persevere even though we don't know what's going to happen or whether the promise we received from God would be fulfilled in our lifetime. (V)

Sources :

1. What is Knowledge? And Do We Have any? - Introduction of Philosophy - the University of Edinburgh - Handout for Lecture 2 by Professor Duncan Pritchard

2. How to Read the Bible Book by Book, Copyright © 2002 by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart.

3. Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary

4. NIV Study Bible Notes, Fully Revised Edition

5. NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

6. New International Bible Commentary. The International Bible Commentary

7. Orthodox Bible Study

8. Unbelievable?: Why after ten years of talking with atheists, I'm still a Christian" by Justin Brierley

9. https://www.str.org/w/never-read-a-bible-verse

10. Please Stop Saying Faith Is Belief Without Evidence by Mike Winger : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIJORjiOWeI

11. https://www.solas-cpc.org/john-lennox-busts-a-myth-about-religion-faith-and-science/

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Why I believe what I believe : The beginning

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” Luke 10 : 27

As you could read from my previous posts, I am a big fan of seeking meaning in life. Like everyone else in this planet I am just trying to be a better person and seeking for meaning of life is one of my way to be that person. Questions like who am i, why am I here and what should I do to be a better person, are questions I try to answer with my belief system which is heavily influenced by my faith.

I inherited my faith from my parents and they inherited theirs from their parents. It may began with an inherited faith but at the age of 16, I personally accepted the faith as my own. Since then, I have my ups and downs in my journey of faith. During difficult times, it was my faith that helped me get through even though it was stretched very thin. I would be lying if I say all is well and my faith came out stronger than ever, because I was not stronger at all, I barely survived. Maybe you would say what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, I really hope so. But, in my case, it had given me the seed of doubt about many things in my life, especially about my faith. Like never before I started to ask questions. It wasn't like I lose it or suddenly I don't believe in God. I do believe in God. But I couldn't take my mind off some things. Things that need answers and when I contemplated to search the answers based on my knowledge (experience) about my faith, I discovered what I have aren't sufficient enough to provide the answers. It turned out what I thought I knew about my faith, I knew nothing at all.

We live in the post truth era where the culture is highly saturated with all kind of different world views and ideas, where subjective experience holds higher value in society, and objective truth is fading. We live in the "you do you, whatever works for you" mentality. It's 'normal' if I say that my faith is based on my personal experience. Almost everybody with faith would say that.

But,

If people experience different things in their search for higher being or walk of faith, and because it’s totally subjective, in the world of relativism and emotivism, where the experience could be the truth for the person who have it and may not be the truth for others, does that mean there are many ways to God? If there are many ways to God, why I choose this way? How could I be sure this is the best way? If it’s only based on experience, how do I explain that my experience is reliable? Am I reliable to even testify about my experience to others? Could it be just some neurons reacting or chemical releasing ? Could it be just a matter of luck? If it’s just a matter of luck, then does that mean my knowing about the truth is not exactly knowing because I don’t use my cognitive ability to know the belief? If I know it’s the truth based on my subjective experience, does that mean my subjective experience become absolute truth? If it’s the absolute truth, why ‘you do you, whatever works for you’ mentality? If it’s objective truth then it’s the truth no matter people believe it or not.

So, why do I believe what I believe?

Let me give you one of many examples that makes me question about the 'experience'.

I love music very much. I am that type of a person who focus in working better with music in the background. I listen to it everyday. I just love it so much and one particular genre that I love is religious music. I would listen to it during my work, even during my travel (I have people who could testify about this). I love listening to it because it made me feel something. I would go to Sunday Service and when the music was playing I would feel closer to God, sometimes I cried, felt overwhelmed, and for so long that experience made me believe that what I feel was the presence of God. But during difficult times, I would do the same and sometimes I felt it and sometimes I just felt nothing, and during those times I believed that I couldn't FEEL the presence of God, and I remember thinking maybe the worship leader didn’t prepare well or one of the people in the worship ministry did something sinful that they weren’t able to perform the duty to lead the congregations to be in the presence of God.

On the other hand, I still pretty much enjoyed listening to music. Classics like Vivaldi and Bach are always succeeded to make me happy. So, I asked myself, does that mean I experience God within Vivaldi and Bach numbers? Or the presence of God was just my feeling? If it's only my feeling how I supposed to say that my experience with God is real? My feeling changes easily so it scared me, if my entire belief system is based on my feeling than I got nothing to hold on. I would be like a boat forever drifted and lost in the ocean. That thoughts scared me, I don't want to believe just based on my experience or my feeling.

I started to ask the questions to people around me. When I asked I started with why you believe what you believe? Most of the people would answer because they've experienced God so they know He is real (most of the experiences are similar with my music experience). Some showed their concern about the state of my faith and tried to share testimonies about miracles God had done in their lives. In the past it would be enough. Even though, I, myself, have my very own miracles that I experienced too, now, the answer is not enough. It even brings me more questions, if the experience with God is the reason why you believe, what about other people who never experience God, does that mean God doesn't interact with them? Does God even like them ? I mean, in our social life, we are not only interacting with the people we like. So, how could you say God loves them if God doesn't even talk to them? How do you know it really God that you’ve experienced and not just some feelings or coincidences or a matter of luck that you interpreted as miracles?

So you see, for me now to say that personal experience is enough to answer the question why you believe what you believe would be like saying to people who are equipped with intellectual mind and cognitive ability that it's okay to throw away all the reasonings and just blindly believe and accept something as the belief based on feeling, subjective experience. I don't think I could do that, well, not anymore, if it would take me thirty minutes of research to decide from which restaurant I'd ordered my dinner than it would take more effort and maybe a lifetime from me to dig deeper to provide me more than just a feeling to answer why I believe what I believe.

If knowing means to use the cognitive ability, to require the true belief, that can be justified and not based on false assumptions (reliable) then that’s how I want my knowing about God to be.

I am sure everyone would do anything they can to know more about the thing or the person they love. And that’s why I think it’s fair for me to say that the purpose of all the questions is not to deconstruct and to let it be scattered and finally losing the faith, but simply to grow stronger in my love for Him and to have a relationship with Him not only based on feelings. I ask questions to know more because I know He is more than what I knew all this time and I know He’s the one that will guide me in my search of the answers (to be continued). (V)

“ The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” - G.K. Chesterton

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