Un/Belief – “Faith, Science and Reason”

We’re in an 11-week exploration of Hebrews chapter 11, and we started with a simple definition of faith: faith is living out what I believe to be true. Last week we saw that there are three stages of faith; first, understanding, then conviction, then commitment. That faith begins with understanding may have come as a surprise to some, since a popular idea in our culture is that faith (religious faith, at least) and understanding (or reason) are opposites – and that religious faith is “blind.” Hebrews 11 begins by making one point clear, however: faith begins with reason; that is, with seeing.

1.  Faith and Reason are Not Opposites (Psalm 19:1-2 ^NIV; Romans 1:20 ^NIV)

• A highly popular idea in western culture is that religious belief of any sort – and particularly monotheistic religious belief – is anti-intellectual and cultish, a simple dogmatism that includes indoctrination, suspension of reason, and blind, unquestioning assent to the tenets of the religion without consideration of any evidence. This type of “faith,” however, isn’t the faith of the Bible – it’s a modern distortion.
• In fact, Biblical faith and reason aren’t opposites at all. Reason, it turns out, is part of the richness of the Christian faith – and is highly biblical. Passages in both the New and Old Testaments speak to God’s desire for humans to consider the clear physical evidence of his creative power as we consider the origins of the universe, and to begin our faith journey with reason – “considering” and “understanding” his invisible existence from the physical reality (evidence) we can clearly see.

2. Faith Reasons with the Evidence 
   
   • For some Christians, the idea that reason and physical evidence should be (or could be) a starting point for our faith seems almost “weak.” Shouldn’t we just have faith because we choose to believe that it’s true – without needing any real “evidence”? But God clearly invites us to “see” him in the evidence of his creative power – and to grow our faith from our understanding of that evidence.
   • Like Princess Anna in the kids’ movie Frozen, some think that Christianity starts with a decision to “marry a man we just met” – in other words, to make a lifelong decision to suspend disbelief and “jump in” without understanding the decision we’re making. But that’s not what God invites us to do; he wants us to consider the evidence for his existence and for his character as we explore faith in him.
   • A true Christian believer is not someone who says, “I believe in spite of the evidence.” A true believer is one who says, “I believe because of the evidence.” True biblical faith is a belief that Christianity has the best explanatory power for the nature of the world (and its people) that we see around us.
3. Reason Can Lead Us to Faith in God  (Hebrews 11:6 ^NIV) 
   
   • Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith includes “assurance about what we do not see” – in other words, while faith in God isn’t “blind,” the object of faith is in fact invisible. But a robust, intellectually honest exploration of all possible explanations for the existence of the natural world, for the existence and behavior of humans, and for our own emotions, desires and curiosity must include the possibility that the biblical explanations of all of these things are true – starting with a faith in the loving, creative actions of an all-powerful, eternally perfect but invisible God. True reason actually leads to that faith.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTUREThese passages may provide additional insights related to the subject of this week’s message. All verses are NLT unless otherwise noted.Proverbs 2:2-5; Jeremiah 29:13; Romans 1:19; Acts 1:3; Acts 14:16-17; 1 John 5:20Video of the Week: The Story of the Bible by the Bible ProjectQUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION‍

1. On a scale of 1-10, how much have reason and logic played a part in your own faith journey?  Explain your answer.  

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2. Would you count yourself among those who think that real Christian faith doesn’t need evidence – i.e., that we’re just called to believe, regardless of what any evidence might tell us?  Why or why not?

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3. Read Psalm 19:1-2 and Romans 1:20 again. How, exactly, does the existence of the physical world offer proof that an “eternally powerful, divine” God exists? 

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4. As part of living out a “reasonable and logical” faith, we should be able to put what we believe about God and the world into story format – much like the Bible does. In your own words, and based on your understanding of our faith, how would you tell “the Story of Everything” – i.e., where the physical world comes from, why it (and we) exist, and where this is all going?  

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5. What do you find (personally) to be the most compelling evidence that the Christian faith is true?

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6. Going back to Hebrews 11, verse 1 reminds us that “faith is the…assurance [understanding, conviction] about what we do not see.” Do you think that means that the more our faith grows, the more we’ll be able to “see” (with our hearts, if not our eyes) the evidence that supports our faith?  Explain your answer.

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