Faith, you have heard the word countless times, but just exactly what do Christians mean when we use the word “faith”. Generally speaking the word faith is used on two levels, and we need to examine both of them, today the first level and on my next post the second level, or sense.
On one level, faith simply means ‘Belief-accepting, that is regarding as true the doctrines of Christianity. That is fairly simple, however what does perplex a great many people is that Christians regard faith on this level as a virtue. The argument is that how can faith on this level be a virtue – what is there moral or immoral about believing or not believing a set of statements?
Obviously, a sane person accepts or rejects any statement, not because he does or does not want to, but because the evidence in support of that statement seems to be either good or bad. If the person is mistaken about the correctness (goodness) of the evidence that supports the statement that would not make him or her a bad person, only a not very clever one. Likewise, if the individual thought the evidence in support of a statement was poor and faulty, but attempted to force him or herself to believe the statement in spite of the evidence, that would only make them stupid. Almost everyone would agree with that conclusion.
Now this is what most people do not see and what most assume is that once a person makes up their mind and accepts a thing as true, they will automatically go on and on believing it is true, until some reason shows up to reconsider it. The assumption is that the human mind is ruled by reason. But we all know that is far from the truth.
Emotions tend to crowd out reason, as is evident in the lives of all those around us. People lose faith in all manner of things (their spouse, their company, their friends, and their leaders) not so much because of reason, but rather because of emotions and the imagination that emotions spark. The battle that is waged in each of us is the between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other.
When you think about it you will see it playing out in your life and those of others. For instance, A man knows by experience, and by evidence that a particular beautiful woman he knows is a lair and cannot be trusted, yet when he finds himself with her, his mind loses it faith in that knowledge and he starts telling himself “this time it will be different” only to once again make a fool of himself and tells her something he should not have (you know how the story ends). His senses and his emotions destroyed his faith in what he knew to be true.
This exact same thing happens in regards to Christianity. Suppose that a person once reason’s and decides that the weight of evidence supports Christianity. But what to do when (and there are always ‘whens’) he or she wants to tell a lie, wants to cheat on their spouse, wants to make a little money that isn’t exactly fair and honest, when wouldn’t it be convenient if Christianity wasn’t true; here in these moments when emotions rise up; in these times when his or her wishes and desires carry out an attack on their reason.
Faith in the sense I have been addressing is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. It is only a fool who thinks their moods and emotions will not change, they always do. Everyone has moments of doubt, when all of Christianity seems entirely improbable. Just as those who are atheist have moments (probably much more then moments) of doubt when Christianity looks terribly probable (doubt however that they would admit it). This is the rebellion of moods against your reason, against your real self. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you lead your emotions they will lead you. You can not be a sound Christian, or atheist for that matter, if your beliefs are really dependent on what the weather is like, what is happening to you, or what you feel like. Like an athlete you must train the habit of faith.
First, recognize that your moods change; second, if you have accepted Christianity, then you must deliberately think about some of its main doctrines everyday. That’s whey daily prayer, reading scripture and going to church are necessary parts of the Christians life, not because it means you are not a Christian if you do not, but rather, because it helps to steady your mind when your emotions come calling. In a world such as ours, we have to be continuously reminded of exactly what it is we believe. Like anything else we must be fed.
If you examined those who have lost their faith in Christianity (or anything) rarely is it the result of it being reasoned out of it by an honest argument. More often it is a slow fade from light to dark.
Previous post in this series "Hope"
Next post in this series "Faith part 2"
Previous post in this series "Hope"
Next post in this series "Faith part 2"
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