noun \ˈfāth\. firm belief in something for which there is no proof (Webster’s dictionary)
Richard Dawkins criticizes religion because it is based on faith, which he says ‘means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence.’ Indeed, some people would even say that faith is believing something even though you know it isn’t true.
No wonder many people think science has made Christianity obsolete. Blind faith seems so stupid compared to the hard reason and evidence of science. We’d much rather put our faith in science!
But of course Christianity is not based on blind faith. When Thomas was rebuked for not believing that Jesus without seeing for himself, was he told that he should have had blind faith – trust in the absence of evidence? No. Jesus said that he should have believed on the same basis as everyone since – trust on the basis of evidence. For John immediately says:
‘these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God’ (John 20:31).
