Faith, What is it?

                Take a general consensus on the definition of the word faith the answer would probably be: “belief in something that you know is not true, or there is no proof”. This definition has been perpetrated by militant atheists who are trying to shore up their positions when they are mocking religious people to the point that it has a subset in the definition of Webster’s definition of faith. Well surely if this were the case religious people would have no case for God right? But what if the atheists have made a categorical mistake on the definition of the word that they are mocking? I would like to examine these questions and see if the general definition of faith holds up.

                One can start by looking at the latin root of the word faith, which is fides, which translates to “to trust”. I don’t know about you, but I would view trust as something that is built up over time and has to be earned by proving oneself through previous actions so one can be trusted to hold their agreements in the future. What this new definition of faith is trying to replace is blind faith, which can be very dangerous, as demonstrated by anyone who put their faith in the Nigerian prince who promised to send them one million dollars if they only provided their personal information. Faith is not something that should be given freely, people need to convince others to put their faith in them.

                This can be shown in the Bible as well. When Jesus was doing his ministry, his reputation of doing miraculous healings grew with each act, but this alone is not enough! The people he had healed actually existed and proclaimed what Jesus had done for them. This is the evidence presented to the people of that day and also to us today. As written in the gospel of John, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25) The evidence can be found by checking the historical claims of the Bible to see if they are true, then one must decide if that is enough for them to believe in the gospel of Christ.

                This can also be turned towards the science that the atheists proclaim. Scientists put their faith in the evidence and work done by their predecessors so that they can do more modern work. If this faith did not exist, Scientists would have to devote more and more of their time to re-do and check each and every scientific result and theory that the modern scientist chooses to use! Scientists take much of their scientific knowledge on faith! To denounce faith in anything is to undermine that which gives humans the ability to do science itself.