Faith and Reason

The secularists are awfully fond these days of pointing to “facts”, science, reason, and even reality as enemies of the Christian faith. I hate to disappoint these creatures, but they are way off the mark. For some interesting insights on this issue check out the latest from Ravi Zacharias International Ministeries “Slice of Infinity” piece by Dale Fincher: “Shipwrecked Faith.” Here’s a teaser:

Thankfully, the Bible consistently speaks clearly about faith and reason.

When the Bible talks about “faith,” it does not refer to it in terms of unreasonable belief or something that lacks evidence. As the theologian Millard Erickson says, the nature of faith is twofold: “giving credence to affirmations and trusting in God.”(3) God has poured out evidence and good reason for us to believe in Him through his Word, through his action in history, logical inference, morality, imagination, the Incarnation, love, and through other ways. So where does “faith” come in when we have evidence? If I may, I’d like to reclaim the meaning of faith in a simple synonym—trust. Faith is trusting what there is good evidence to believe is true. This is helpful on several accounts. Let me list two.

See also the brilliant Ravi’s piece: “Apologetics: Shadow or Reality?” Finally, see Romans 1:18-20.