The Limits of Faith

Faith is sometimes described as belief in the impossible.

This is a sarcastic opinion that is neither accurate nor fair. Faith is probably better described as belief without evidence.

Faith holds a curious position in most religions in that many religious people will often cite examples of evidence for the existence of god, but resort to faith when evidence fails or they begin to lose an argument. In other words, it is often used as a fallback position. This is not, however, the full story and it is helpful to examine the different ways that faith is used.

There are two main ways that faith is used. The first is belief without evidence. This is a belief in something which can be neither proved nor disproved. The existence of god is an example of this. There is no solid evidence for the existence of god, however there is also no solid evidence for god’s non-existence. It is hard to prove a negative. A belief in god is therefore a matter of faith. It cannot be proved, it cannot be disproved, it is a matter of belief without evidence.

The other main use of faith is belief against evidence. Belief in something, even though there is evidence that contradicts the belief. It is this distinction between belief without evidence and belief against evidence that marks the limits of faith. To be willing to have faith in a belief regardless of evidence, to have faith in a belief that goes against reason and includes contradiction is to have blind faith. It is blind faith, faith against evidence that is used by religious fundamentalists as a fallback position.