By Pastor Stephen Hess –
Christianity is the largest religion on the planet, claiming well over 2 billion adherents. Additionally, it is one of the oldest religions still being practiced today, dating back two thousand years. Yet despite the pervasive influence of Christianity across the globe, there are many people today who are not believers. In fact, the majority of the world population does not believe in the Christian faith. What makes it so hard for so many people to believe?
There are many answers to this question, but in our modern age one of the greatest stumbling blocks to Christian belief is the idea that faith and reason are in conflict. Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has insisted that Christian faith is “a persistently false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.” In other words, according to Dawkins, faith is essentially “belief without evidence” and consequently, faith is in direct conflict with human reason. Therefore Dawkins (and many others like him) claim that to have faith is an irrational leap in the dark.
But I would strongly argue that the way Dawkins and others have defined faith is faulty. Faith is not “belief without evidence.” The book of Hebrews says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). In other words, faith involves believing in things we cannot necessarily see with our eyes, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have any evidence for them! Even though we cannot see God, there is evidence for him all over creation. I would even go so far as to argue that when one takes an objective and open-minded look at the evidence for God, the most reasonable explanation is that he does exist. Therefore faith is not irrational; rather, faith is the most rational decision a person can make!
The truth is that we all believe in things we cannot see or fully understand. I believe in gravity because even though I cannot see it, I experience its effects. In a similar way, I believe in God because there is a great deal of evidence for him and he is the most reasonable explanation for the world around me. As C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
One of the implications of all this is that we don’t have to be afraid when people ask tough questions about Christianity. There are many skeptics today who have big objections to Christianity and sometimes those questions can be intimidating. But we shouldn’t be afraid to ask tough questions, because ultimately if the Bible is true then the truth can stand up to tough questions. Additionally I believe that most people discover when they start investigating the arguments for and against Christianity with an open mind that the weight of the evidence points toward God, not away from him. The question is: Are you willing to go where the evidence takes you?
Starting on Sunday April 3, we will be starting at new sermon series at Highview called “The Big Objections.” During this 8-week series we will be exploring some of the toughest objections and questions that people have about Christianity. My hope is that this series will be an opportunity for you to invite friends to Highview who might have their own questions about Christianity. They will discover that we aren’t afraid of the tough questions, and they might even discover some answers. But my hope is that this series would also be an encouragement to believers as we strive to understand our faith more deeply. If you are a person of faith then you need to “be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). As I think you’ll see, we have very good reason to be convicted about those things we cannot see.