Dr Paul Allen

It’s common to make the mistake of bringing our own definition of words into the Bible. In this case, Christians who have grown up with the view that faith is blind instantly assume that the Bible is referring to a belief without knowledge or evidence (that is, “blind faith”). But when we take a careful look at the Bible, it appears to be saying something completely different about faith. The word used in the New Testament for faith is pistis, which is commonly used to express “the state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted.”1 It can thus also mean “trust” or “confidence.” Note that it doesn’t mean the hope that something is true or the wish that something would be true—those are different ideas. It might reduce some confusion, then, if we just use the word trust when talking about this idea. We use this biblical version of faith, or trust, all the time. Think about the last time you got into an aeroplane—you trusted the plane and the pilot to take y...

Many atheist critiques of Christianity claim that faith is blind, irrational, stupid. In his book The God Delusion , leading atheist Richard Dawkins asserts that faith opposes reason, and calls faith a “delusion,” which he describes as “persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence” (p. 28). A common example used to show that the Bible denigrates evidence is the story of doubting Thomas . In The Selfish Gene , Dawkins writes, “Thomas demanded evidence. . . . The other apostles, whose faith was so strong that they did not need evidence, are held up to us as worthy of imitation” (198). Was Jesus repudiating an evidence-based faith? First, Jesus predicted his resurrection on multiple occasions in the presence of the disciples. Thomas should not have been surprised at the return of Jesus. Second, Thomas heard eyewitness testimony (evidence) from the rest of the disciples and yet still refused to believe. (The vast majority of scientific knowledge we posses...

To answer this question, let’s begin by looking at the word the Bible uses for faith. It’s common to make the mistake of bringing our own definition of words into the Bible. In this case, Christians who have grown up with the view that faith is blind instantly assume that the Bible is referring to a belief without knowledge or evidence (that is, “blind faith”). But when we take a careful look at the Bible, it appears to be saying something completely different about faith. The word used in the New Testament for faith is pistis, which is commonly used to express “the state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted.”1 It can thus also mean “trust” or “confidence.” Note that it doesn’t mean the hope that something is true or the wish that something would be true—those are different ideas. It might reduce some confusion, then, if we just use the word trust when talking about this idea. We use this biblical version of faith, or trust, all the time. Think about the l...