Hello, I'm "Ignorance"?

My daughter's middle name is Faith. Not only did we like the sound of it, but it means something dear to my wife and I. But it may mean something totally different to you.

To those of a religious background, the word "faith" carries much significance. It may be a tool for salvation, a crutch in hard times, an appeal for action, or a gift of mercy. Unfortunately, even in religious circles faith can also be an excuse for intellectual lethargy, a pinch-hitter against hard questions, and a trite formula from the feel-good pariahs of our day.

To those outside the church, faith is irrational. It is an excuse for belief, and an admission of ignorance. To them faith is unsupported conclusions; a blind leap in the dark. There is no telling whether there is solid earth under your foot on the next step (whether what you believe is actually true), you just trust that there will be (that you are right), and hope that you have enough "faith" to support you.

They would also argue that faith is diametrically opposed to reason. "Reason" refers to logic, so in essence they are saying that faith is illogical. Furthermore, since science operates on logical principles and is the method by which we discover truth, faith being illogical has no place in science, and there is no way to establish the truth claims associated with faith.

Wow! Faith is in trouble! This argument sounds air tight. But...let's differentiate a bit here.

Science can be divided into two primary categories; Empirical Science, and Forensic Science. Empirical Science deals with operations; present regularities. It uses observation and repetition to discover and verify truth. This is the "scientific method" at work. But Forensic Science deals with singularities, things that only happen once and are not repeatable. For example, you cannot repeat a murder to observe the death and identify the killer. But you can observe the evidence and draw many conclusions about the event, including the method used, the time of death, signs of a struggle, etc.

This category of science is a valid arena to explore religious truths. Things resigned to the spiritual debate such as creation and miracles would fall into the category of Forensic Science for exploration. Incidentally, Forensic Science is also the proper field for the study of evolution, and even all of human history as none are present, repeatable events. If these can be objects of scientific study, so can religious truth claims.

Chris' refined definition of faith - "Faith is a held belief, which reflects the degree of certainty you have based on the evidence you have seen." So when we speak of faith in regard to spiritual things we are using logic to come to conclusions based on evidence. This is not a blind leap in the dark. So faith and reason are not mutually exclusive.

A good example of the difference between a proper understanding of faith, and the ignorant blind leap is to consider two elevators. The door for the first elevator opens, people get off, you can see the inside, the floor, the lights, etc. The door for the second opens, nobody gets off, there is nothing but darkness, you cannot see inside. Which elevator would you take? Some may think that the first elevator is for the scientist and the second is for the person of faith. In reality they are sharing the first.

God does not call us to take a blind leap of faith. He calls us to take a step of faith, in light of the evidence.