- When I hear people of faith use words like “faith” I have to ask what do they mean? I think they must really mean “hope”. For example," I hope there is a God who loves me" or " I hope that my sins are forgiven."
- If water is H2O then it cannot be, at the same time NaCl.
- I am a cradle catholic–clearly,fallen away at this point—I have studied in earnest and believe myself to be well informed.
Let’s start with Abraham. What was credited to him as “faith”? Basically he was credited with believing God’s promise about Isaac, having a child in old age, and the promise of “descendants” from that union.
However he had personal experiences to back up the faith. There was the episode of the flaming torch held by no hand. There were the three men who suddenly appeared at the tree of Mamre, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words, Abraham had
evidence to back up his faith. The **doubt **however was due to the long delay in the promise of a son.
Fast forward to Moses, and the Red (or Reed) Sea parted, but not until he’d already seen a bush burning without being consumed, heard a voice speaking out of thin air, and been instrumental in briinging about the ten plagues of Egypt. Later he was to see God walk past but not see His face. A pillar of cloud by day and fire by night accompanied the Israelites through the desert. Again he and they had
evidence. But there were also** doubts** - disasters struck the camp, and they were condemned to wander forty years in the desert when they could have made the same trip in two weeks.
Move to the New Testament. The disciples
witnessed people being healed miraculously, water turning into wine, bread and fish multiplying thousand fold, Christ walking on water, Lazarus rising from the dead after four days, the darkness when Christ was crucified, and the risen Christ, who spoke with them, ate with them, and ascended in plain sight. Again they had
evidence. But there was also the
doubt - the man they’d been following who seemed unbeatable was crucified as a criminal, and they all ran away.
Skip to Paul, and he was struck blind on the way to Damascus, heard the voice of the Lord, and was healed miraculously by a reluctant disciple. The doubt would have been due to his intense suffering, and the mysterious way God works, when for example he would not allow him to go one way, but told him to go to the Macedonians. He had both
evidence and
doubt.
Now not too many Christans have these radical experiences today. But most Christians do get some sort of witness given to them. We’re not left depending on a mere intellectual understanding of “faith”, as you and most atheists think. Even when I was still an atheist, I had the experience of my father turning up in my room the night he died, we argued and conversed, and then he disappeared with one almighty scream. Since becoming a Christian, I’ve had 3 experiences of what my Catholic psychiatrist called a “double whammy” (he’s had them too - it’s like a very strong breath going through you in waves from head to foot, and in my case was used to emphasise a phrase someone else was saying at the time, so that I still remember these phrases word for word today, years later). There have been quite a number of other experiences. And I’m not the only one.
So I know from
experience that God and the spiritual world exist. But there is also doubt - when things go wrong for a considerable time, I wonder what the hell God is doing, and where is this power of His? I wonder why there is so much injustice, so much cruelty, so much inequality, why evil seems so pervasive? I do not know the answer, although I am equally sure the devil exists. He claimed the kingdoms of the world are all his, and perhaps just once he might have be telling the truth.
So in that context what is “faith”, if I’ve (and most other Christians) have been given “evidence” that God exists? The fact is that we are still required to go through periods of doubt. It is not faith in the sense that we know 2+2 equals 4. We can prove that by putting four items on a table and dividing them into 2 groups of 2. That’s evidential.
Perhaps an airplane flight could be example. You would have “faith” that your trip will be uneventful, and that you will get safely to your destination. Your faith would be based on the
evidence of many successful flights by other people, backed up by your understanding of aerodynamics at whatever level, trust in maintenance regimes, and you may have flown many times before.
But suppose something goes terribly wrong on just one flight. Engines fail, some people die, a door blows out. A flight that normally is over fairly quickly seems to take hours of tortuous fear. You get there, but your unquestioning faith in heavier than air flight would have been severely tested.
You would probably still have faith in heavier than air flight, based on more than mere intellectualism. But you wouldn’t be so smug the next time. There would be some doubt.
I have faith that Mary appeared to 3 children at Fatima in 1917. The corroborating “evidence” is that 70,000 to 100,000 people saw the sun dance, including atheistic journalists, that atheists converted on the day, and scientists have calculated that the energy required to suddenly dry the ground and clothes of the people, despite the fact that it had rained for days beforehand, would have been equivalent to a 2 megaton nuclear explosion.
But I also believe that evidence because I
already have faith in God and Christ, based on previous personal “experience”. Which is sometimes assailed by strong doubts and negative experiences.
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