Is Faith Unreasonable?
By George A. Snyder
SOME assert, with a sneer, that “religion is founded on faith, not on reason.” Paul, in speaking of the Christian religion, calls it a “reasonable service;” and Peter admonishes us to be able to give a reason for our hope. A great many Christian people have the idea that faith stands out in strong contrast to reason, and makes credulity a virtue. In taking this view of faith Christians seem to confirm the assertion of the philosopher, and discredit the Bible. The reason why so many people believe that faith is contrary to reason, is because they have an unreasonable conception of the nature of true faith. Those who imagine that their faith is opposed to reason, would do well to ask themselves how long their faith would last if they should suddenly lose their reason. There are several places in the New Testament where the word “confidence” is translated from the same primitive verb that is the root of the word “faith.” See 2 Cor. 2:3; Gal. 5:10; Phil. 1:25; 3:3; 2 Thess. 3:4; Philemon 21. In the above scriptures the original verb peithō means “to convince by argument, or to assent to evidence.” See Strong’s Greek dictionary. In Heb. 11:1, margin, we read that “faith is the ground or confidence of things . . . not seen.” “Faith” and “confidence” being so nearly alike in meaning that they have both been translated from the same original verb, it would seem that if faith is opposed to reason, then confidence must also be opposed to reason. But we all know enough about the nature of confidence to perceive without argument that it is not opposed to reason. On the contrary, it is one of the most reasonable and essential virtues in all the range of human affairs. There may be plenty of money in the country, and every prospect of continued prosperity; but if confidence begins to waver, we are liable soon to find ourselves in a serious crisis. Without confidence between husband and wife, no amount of money, or the luxuries which it can purchase, can bring happiness into the home. Seeing that confidence is so important a factor in our relations to our fellow creatures, why should it seem unreasonable that faith, the twin virtue of confidence, should be set forth as the essential element in our relations to our Creator? When we say that without confidence it is impossible for a child to please the parent, we state a fact that is very clear to all; but when God says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him,” we are likely to permit ourselves to imagine that such a statement is contrary to reason. Yet we have greater reason to confide in our heavenly Father than a child has in earthly parents. The orderly march of the planets, and the wonderful adaptation and design throughout the range of the diversified phenomena of nature on which we depend for our very existence, surely ought to furnish sufficient reason for us to confide in the “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, . . . for in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:23-28. One reason why faith is supposed to be contrary to reason, is because imagination is mistaken for faith. We can imagine all sorts of unreasonable things. We might imagine that a toothache is a delightful sensation, but it is not reasonable that its effect on the nervous system can thus be avoided. The ancients imagined that the earth was flat; but they did not have faith that it was flat, because they had no evidence. Christopher Columbus had faith in the sphericity of the earth, because he had at least some evidence. With faith based on the little evidence at hand, he pushed the prow of his craft into hitherto unknown waters, and opened up the New World. In like manner we base our faith on the evidence at hand in the great books of nature and revelation, and brave the angry dash of the waters of earthly strife and commotion on our voyage toward the peaceful shores of the new earth.