Faith

Macht of Telic Thoughts wrote an insightful comment which analyzes the tendency of atheist fundamentalists to incorrectly define faith. His comment and reactions to it follow. (macht = red; Bradford = blue)

According to him, what the Christian means when he or she says "I have faith in God" is "I have insufficient evidence that God exists."

This is an indication that the atheistic assertion about faith lacks intellectual integrity. The term faith is in no need of a definition. It was defined in ancient times. If atheists wish to argue the point laid out by macht then let them do so legitimately.

No matter how many times you say "keiths, you are wrong, that's not what Christians mean" he (and Dawkins and Harris and everybody like them) will ignore you. I guarantee it. Their whole worldview of pitting science or reason against religion relies on that definition and it is about as dogmatic a belief as you will find. I'm sure some of you think I'm exaggerating this point, too, but I assure you I'm not.

Macht's observation accords with my experience. Atheists do rely on their contrived definition to further their science/reason meme.


A frequent Telic Thoughts commenter, John_A_Designer, gave a more accurate description of faith. From his comment:

Jesus himself always linked faith with moral action and good deeds. That is what he was talking about when he talked about the mustard seed: “If you had the faith of a mustard seed you could move a mountain.” He wasn’t talking about mere intellectual assent, believing in Gods existence, for example, he was talking about doing something, performing some great deed or act. It could be a miracle, or it could be some great act of love and compassion. The implication is that more faith one has then greater the resulting act or deed, and the greater the good. Most Christians and theologians I know, or know about, I believe would define faith this way.