Faith

Belief in God, they might say, is not a matter for abstract intellectual speculation, but rather
for personal commitment. It is a matter of faith, not of the clever employment of reason.
Faith involves trust. If I’m climbing a mountain and I put my
faith in the strength of my rope, then I trust that it will hold me if I should lose my footing
and fall, though I can’t be absolutely certain that it will hold me until I put it to the test. For
some people, faith in God is like faith in the strength of the rope: there is no established
proof that God exists and cares for every individual, but the
believer trusts that God does indeed exist and lives his or her life accordingly.
An attitude of religious faith is attractive to many people. It makes the kind of arguments
we have been considering irrelevant. Yet at its most extreme, religious faith can make people
completely blind to the evidence against their views: it can become more like stubbornness
than a rational attitude.

THE DANGERS OF FAITH

Faith, as I have described it, is based on insufficient evidence. If there were sufficient
evidence to declare that God exists, then there would be less need for faith: we would then
have knowledge that God exists. Because there is insufficient evidence to be certain of God’s
existence, there is always the possibility that the faithful are mistaken in their faith. And, as
with the belief that miracles have occurred, there
are a number of psychological factors which can lead people to put their faith in God.
For instance, the security that comes from believing that an all-powerful being is looking
after us is undeniably attractive. Belief in life after death is a good antidote to a fear of
death. These factors can be incentives for some to commit themselves to a faith in God. Of
course, this doesn’t necessarily make their faith misplaced, it simply shows that the causes
of their faith may be a combination of insecurity and wishful thinking.