Many people think that faith means believing something without any evidence or verification.
Or worse, they think that faith is just a subjective feeling about something
such as God or the meaning of life. Both of these views make faith out to be something unreasonable
or irrational. But both of these views are serious mistakes about what faith is. So, what is faith?
And is it possible for anyone to live without it?
Sometimes, people believe something because it is evident to their senses. For example, the sun went
down at 7pm this evening. Why do you believe that? “I saw it and looked at my watch as it
was happening” someone might say. Or the water on the stove is getting hot. Why do you believe that?
Because “I touched it” the person might say. At other times, people believe something not because
it is evident to the senses but because it is evident to their reason. 2 + 2 = 4, or every whole
is greater than a part of it. One can see these things, and other truths like them, with the
eyes of intelligence. Now, when someone judges something to be true either because it is evident
to their senses or because it is evident to their reason, the judgment is not a matter of faith.
It is a matter of knowing these things. One sees such truths either with the senses or with the
mind. Sometimes, however, one believes something not because it is evident to one’s own senses
or because it is evident to one’s own reason, but because someone else sees it and testifies to it.
Perhaps a friend saw the sunset at 7pm while you were inside,
and reported it to you. Believing something on the word or testimony of another person is called
faith. Faith, then, is not a case of believing something without any evidence or reason at all,
but a case of believing something with another kind of evidence besides one’s own senses or
reason. Faith is believing on the word of a witness. If the witness is trustworthy, then
it is quite reasonable to believe the testimony. When faith is properly understood for what it is,
as believing something on the word of another, it is clear that faith is an ordinary and natural
part of human life. When a doctor says you have a specific disease, for example,
to believe the doctor is an act of faith. When a history book says George Washington camped at
Valley Forge in the winter of 1777, to believe the book is an act of faith. When a teacher of
a foreign language says this is how a certain word is pronounced, to believe it is an act of faith.
When you believe your mother when she tells you where you were born, it is an act of faith. Same
too with believing your birth certificate. When your mother tells you that this man is
your father, that too is an act of faith. Who else knows that but she? And if you say that a DNA test
confirms that this man is your father, well unless you are an expert in reading DNA tests,
that too is an act of faith in the expert. In fact, to learn how to read DNA tests requires many
acts of faith in science textbooks over the course of one’s education, and scientists regularly make
acts of faith when they report their findings to one another and believe one another. In practice,
they do not double check each other’s every claim with independent experiments or studies.
In fact, human beings will take tremendous risks on the faith we have in one another.
Every time someone flies on a plane, for example, the airline company says what? They say
in effect, “we are going to put you in this metal tube, lift you up thousands of feet into the air,
and hurl you through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour. But you will be fine. Just trust us.”
And people trust the airlines every day and climb on board knowing full well that from
time to time planes crash and burn and people die. Or think of a case of someone with a brain tumor.
After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, the surgeon says “Okay, so you need brain surgery.
In the surgery, first I am going to cut open your skull. Then I am going to take a knife and
insert it into your brain. Then I will cut out the tumor and probably a portion of your brain
with it. But you’ll be fine. Just trust me.” And people go in for brain surgeries every day.
Flying on planes, going for surgeries, and other acts of faith are all ordinary and reasonable
things to do. If someone were to try to live without ever believing what other people say, that
person would become dysfunctional. How would you ever learn history, science, foreign languages,
or even your first language. In fact, how would you learn someone’s name? You meet someone for the
first time. “Hi, my name is Joe. What’s your name? Bob. I don’t believe you. Prove it.” Relationships
go nowhere without faith. In fact, how do you know your own name? Someone told you. Perhaps
your parents or family members. All of this goes to show just how central faith is to human life.
Faith is a natural and inescapable part of life, and without it neither individuals nor societies
could function. Faith in general, therefore, is a reasonable thing.
It is of course necessary to consider our sources, think about who we are believing,
consider their qualifications and credentials, and evaluate it all with care. But it is not possible
to double check all one’s sources all the time, so just what the requirements are for double checking
is a big philosophical question. But it is safe to say that credible witnesses
make for a reasonable faith. Now what does all of this have to do with Christian faith? What we have
been discussing so far is human faith, the faith that human beings naturally and ordinarily have in
each other’s testimony. But from the earliest days, Christians saw a comparison or analogy
between that natural and ordinary human faith and the supernatural gift of faith in God and Jesus
Christ. For example, it says in the First Letter of John: “If we believe the word of men, how much
greater is the word of God.” In other words, if it is a reasonable thing for human beings to have
faith in the word of merely human witnesses even though humans are fallible and often mistaken,
how much more reasonable is it for us to have faith in the word of God
who is infallible, makes no mistakes, and cannot either deceive or be deceived. Another example:
In the First Letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul says: “And we also thank God constantly for this,
that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the
word of men but as what it really is, the word of God…” That passage shows how conscious the
early Christians were of believing not only human testimony, but divine testimony – the
word of God. So, too, it should be with us. What we believe by faith is not merely human testimony,
but the word of the living God. There are many signs to confirm that it is in fact the word
of God, the signs are accessible to reason, and we shall look at them in later videos. And yet
faith is not born from merely rational reflection upon evidence or signs. Faith is a gift of God
born from the Spirit of truth at work within our souls and illuminating everything. The Spirit
moves us, in coordination with the whole Church, to believe everything that God has revealed.
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