Blind Faith vs. Reasoned Faith

[ILoveSweetpea]

My husband and I are both Christians. DH grew up in a very religious family and has never wavered in his faith. I've had a different path - my mom was Christian and my dad agnostic. My upbringing was not very religious. I came to my faith later in life - in my twenties - after a lot of thought and research and soul searching.

When my DH and I talk about our faith, we are usually on the same page, with the exception of one issue: blind faith. DH freely admits he has blind faith. He believes Jesus is the son of God because "he just knows it." I've pressed him for more in-depth conversations about why he believes what he believes, but he never has an answer that goes beyond "that's just what I believe." If I press him by going any further in the conversation, he gets very defensive and says I am trying to shake his faith.

This isn't the case at all. I am not trying to shake his faith, I am trying to strengthen it. I know I need to simply love and respect him for his faith. And I do. I really avoid this topic and we have only talked about it a handful of times. But, honestly, it concerns me. I am worried that if his faith is based on nothing more than childhood inertia and blind faith, then how could it stand up to a real test?

He says my 'reasoned faith' isn't faith at all. He seems to think that you HAVE to have blind faith in order to be Christian. I 100% disagree with this. I believe Christianity is a reasoned faith. I believe it can be come to from a place of logic and not just a place of emotion. I believe logic and a knowledge of the origins of the universe can lead to a believe in the existence of God. I believe historical evidence supports a belief in Christianity. (I am sure people of other faiths can also find reason to support their beliefs...I don't mean to sound exclusionary.) I don't believe that God wants us to turn off our brains and believe anything blindly. I believe he leaves many clues to his existence for those who are willing to look and I believe such evidence was indented to help strengthen our faith and bring us closer to God.

This whole issue of blind versus reasoned faith wouldn't bother me so much if I wasn't worried that blind faith can be easily shaken. If there isn't a strong backbone to faith, it seems as if it could fall apart easily if challenged.

Please share your thoughts with me on the issue of blind faith. Does anyone believe this is the only "true" faith? Does anyone understand my concerns? Or can blind faith be strong or stronger than reasoned faith? Should I just let this go and not talk about it with DH? Should I show him things that I believe to be reasons/evidence for belief - or is that undermining his own faith? I want to show him love and respect. I don't want to be needlessly questioning something so personal...

For the last several years, I haven't said a word about this. But... it's always in the back of my mind. I do worry. What do you all think? I'd love to hear responses for Christians AND people of all faiths. Thank you !!!!



PS- sorry if none of this made sense.

[Bekka]

on spiritual gifts:

1 Corinthians 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.
12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit....

I believe that some are given the spiritual gift of knowledge of God, and I believe that some are given to come to God by "the word of knowledge" (by learning). I believe that believing on the faith of someone else is also a spiritual gift (i.e., believing them when they say they believe). Relying on one's relationship with God through the Holy Spirit is the only way to be at peace here.

So in response to your question, yes, I believe that one can have a blind, i.e., unquestioned AND NEVER questioned faith from one's childhood--I have this. There has never been a time (all through a bio major in college) that I ever doubted in God and Jesus Christ, ever. They have always been an emotional and spiritual surety for me since I was a little girl.

I have friends who have come to a spiritual place through thinking, studying, reasoning, and prayer. I'm not in your relationship, but yes, I feel like your husband can have what you're calling a "blind faith" but feels more like a surety, just the way you have surety that the sun will come up tomorrow.

[ILoveSweetpea]

Great response, Bekka. Thank you!

[Sailor]

I was raised Catholic. I'm an atheist now. I'm an atheist because I always tried to make my faith rational and logical. I wanted to arrive at Christianity (or any religion) from a very rational/logical base. It didn't work out for me (obviously).

In my experience, I have found blind faith to be very firmly rooted. There's nothing to question, nothing to analyze, nothing to wonder about, nothing to reason, nothing to shake. These people just KNOW, with their whole beings. They just KNOW. And I think they're the least likely people to waver or shake from their faith. I was never able to reach that kind of certainty.

So, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about your dh not passing any tests/challenges that come his way.

By the way, this is NOT to say that I think your approach is any less than your dh's. It's not. I think there are many approaches, yours just as valid and just as real, just as strong. I was just sharing my personal experience, and a different perspective since you mentioned you were worried about your dh's faith in meeting a difficult test.

[Bluegoat]

You might be interested in studying a bit about how we have come to understand faith as Christians historically. I actually think your understanding is much closer to what is meant by faith than your dh's.

Your dh's understanding of faith has always had a place, but it became kind of an ideal of faith among some groups after the Reformation. During that time, faith was understood by some Protestants as separate from, and in some cases opposed to, reason. It was a gift of God alone.

Reasoned faith was an earlier ideal, where reason and religious revelation were seen to be from the same source, God, and thus ultimately united in truth. People who had the ability and time was expected/encouraged to have some interest in the reasoned aspect because it helped them strengthen their own understanding and avoid error; it helped them witness effectively to others; and it was a sign of love for God, a desire to know all about him.

There were still people who followed somewhat different paths, but most people who had some education understood the basics of philosophical theology. (Many of course had NO education in those days - such people were not expected to have that understanding.)

I tend to see all of those things as still applicable, and especially the first one. Without some kind of reasoned underpinning to faith, it is very easy to make errors in understanding how to practice/apply it. What is our responsibility to God?

I also am not sure I would say it is more deeply rooted. It can be hard to say. I have seen people with that kind of faith suddenly just lose it after reading something like Richard Dawkins - not exactly a great intellectual force. I find it quite a fragile thing at times.

Now, OTOH, all claims to human knowledge are ultimately based on faith and hope. The idea that there is a world for us to know at all, the idea that we can reason about it, that it will continue to work according to the same rules it has in the past, etc. These are all based, even for rabid atheists, on a kind of faith. It is not a provable kind of knowledge. To me, this is the seat of the true "faith which leads to understanding."

[laohaire]

What a great question. It kind of touched upon some issues I'm dealing with, because I have no faith (I do not and never have believed in God) but am trying to open myself up to it, trying to find God.

One thing I've learned about faith is that no matter what kind it is, there's a leap. That leap might be across a small crack or a chasm but either way, since for some reason God doesn't reveal Himself to us the way that we experience ordinary things, we have to experience Him in a different way than the other things we can see and touch and hear. Even if your faith is deep and unshaken, there's still some leap where you just trust rather than rely on your ordinary senses.

I don't see any inherently raised risk in blind faith versus reasoned faith. Reasoned faith may be just as easy (or easier) to shake than blind faith. I think reason can take you very close to God but it cannot take you all the way.

Therefore I don't think blind faith is at any disadvantage. From people I know and things that I have read, faith can be shaken (temporarily or permenantly) by deep grief or other events, but the dark hour of the soul seems to affect both kinds of faiths.

[hrsmom]

I actually don't understand your concerns, I hope it's ok to respond anyway! I do think it's ok for people to have different paths to faith, and like the PP said, the dark hour of the soul seems to affect both kinds. 20 years from now you may be the one with the blind faith and he may be the one with the reasoned faith, you never know!

[momo7]

I am always questioning my Faith, constantly proving it, and trying to nurture it. As a Catholic, I find much inspiration in the Saints. Both St. John of the Cross and St. Terese of Liseux had doubts, questions and such.....but what made them saints was that despite thier doubts and their questions they still believed. So it was wih many other saints. It's ok to have these questions, and even doubt what you believe, it's because of our questions that our faith grows. I wouldn't say that your husband has blind faith, he just believes. If you have doubts about what you believe it doesn't mean your faith isn't as strong as his.