1 - Faith

Summary

What is faith? Is it just a matter of propositions, claims, such as “God is love”? Or is it more a matter of commitment, perhaps not fully articulated, of having a background awareness of God and his love? And what is the position of faith for the Christian? Is faith alone enough, or does one need to supplement it with reasoned argument and possibly appeal to outside evidence? The New Atheists argue that Christianity fails because it rests on faith, and, today, we see that reason and evidence, most notably science and its confirmed theories, negate faith claims. Faith therefore is seen as delusional, a function of the fact that people are scared of death and the apparent meaninglessness of their lives. Ruse and Davies raise and argue these questions, coming to very different conclusions.