Tim explains why, contrary to what skeptics may say, biblically informed Christians define faith as trusting in what you have reason to believe is true.
Transcript
Original Video: It honestly never stops being hilarious when religious people suddenly start asking for evidence. If there were any evidence of Mary’s existence at all, your religion wouldn’t be a religion; it would just be historical fact. Christianity is completely faith-based. Evidence is the antithesis of faith. If you, sir, could provide me evidence of Mary’s existence, I’d join Christianity.
Tim: This video is captioned “You either have evidence, or you have faith. You cannot have both.” On this view, faith and evidence are opposites. As the creator of the video says, “Evidence is the antithesis of faith.” Now, if you want to critique a view, you should critique the view itself, not some distortion of the view. Otherwise, you’re just creating a straw man. This content creator is welcome to make up her own definition of “faith” if she likes. Have at it. But she isn’t welcome to make up what the biblical authors mean when they use the word.
The idea that evidence is the antithesis of faith is not a Christian concept. In fact, biblically informed Christians define faith as something like trusting in what you have good reason to believe is true. And where would a biblically informed Christian get such an idea? I’m glad you asked.
This is what the Bible teaches. Go ahead, read it for yourself. I’ll wait. Here’s one example. In John 20, the apostle John tells us why he wrote his Gospel. He says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.” John’s purpose in writing down the signs he witnessed was to provide his readers with evidence so they would believe. Now, be honest. Does this sound like John wants us to believe without evidence? Does this sound like John thinks evidence is the antithesis of faith? Of course not.
Now, someone may assess the evidence and find it wanting. Fair enough. But that doesn’t change the nature of biblical faith. So, this video gets faith wrong. Faith isn’t believing in spite of the evidence but, rather, believing in light of the evidence. Faith is what you do in response to the evidence.
An analogy might help. Imagine you’re standing at the edge of Niagara Falls, and while you’re watching this magnificent waterfall, you notice a tightrope walker walking from one side to the other, pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks. You’re mesmerized by his amazing ability, so you keep watching him do it over and over again. Let’s say he does it 5, 10, 15 times in a row. Now imagine he sees you watching him, and he comes over to you and asks, “Do you have faith that I could do it again?” And you say, “Sure, I’ve seen you do it all day.” Then he dumps the rocks out and says, “Okay, climb in.” Do you get it? You believe based on the evidence, seeing him do it 15 times in a row. But it’s not mere belief or assent. Stepping into the wheelbarrow is an act of trust. So, think of biblical faith like active trust or commitment based on evidence.
Unfortunately, many people, including some Christians, don’t understand biblical faith. Sadly, there are many who will blindly believe this video without looking into what Christianity actually teaches. Ironically, this concept of faith is just asserted without any evidence. In other words, she expects us to accept her understanding on blind faith. Don’t take the bait.