What is faith?

Faith is something that nearly all atheists seem to take exception to.  How would an atheist define faith and how do they view someone who says they have faith?

To an atheist faith is like a blindfold, something theists put over their mental eyes which blocks their reason and thinking ability and turns them into mindless drones.  This, in actuality, is a kind of faith.  It’s called credulity, or blind faith.  Credulity can be synonymous with gullibility, simpleness or naiveté.

I have met people with this kind of faith.  Usually they know very little about their own beliefs or holy book and thus cannot successfully defend what they believe.  They rely on the catchall answer “you just need to have faith” like a crutch, getting them off the hook and relieving them of the need to think. 

When atheists deride the word faith they imply that only religious people use it.  That is not so.  Faith as defined in the dictionary includes “complete trust…something that is believed with strong conviction.”  There was no mention of religion in that description at all.  By this definition atheists use faith all the time.

Think about the last time you boarded an airplane.  Did you meet the pilot?  Did you ask to see his certificate of training?  Did you meet the co-pilot?  Did you prove to yourself that the people in control of your life several miles above the ground are indeed qualified to fly the plane?  Did you prove they were qualified and not hung-over/depressed/suicidal?  Did you ask the mechanics if your plane was flight worthy?

Likely you answered no to each of those questions.  If so, why in the name of good sense did you get on that plane?  Because you had faith that since the last time you rode an airplane everything went okay and therefore this time won’t be any different.  In reality you don’t know that for certain but you’re willing to exercise a little faith.

Everyone does this.  Every day.  Several times a day.

But this is not real faith.  The Bible’s definition of faith goes deeper and it excludes credulity.  According to the Bible faith is a belief in something we cannot see but which we have solid evidence for our belief.

There are numerous things we cannot see but we know exist because of their influence on us and the world around us.  Air, gravity, magnetism and black holes are some examples.  We have solid evidence of their existence and therefore believe they exist.

This is how it works with God.  God is supernatural, something greater than ourselves and as such invisible to our eyes.  But those with real faith believe they have solid evidence of his existence, and He is real to us because of what we can see, not because of what we cannot see.