Blind faith

Now faith is to be sure of what we hope for and certainty of what we do not see

Hebrews 11:1

Sometimes Christians are accused of having blind faith, to believe in God without there being any evidence or justification 

To have 'blind faith' in anyone or anything is somewhat problematic, I am not sure that it actually exists. Blind faith implies that there is no reason for the faith and that surely cannot be the case. Who would be mad enough to have faith for absolutely no reason?  In fact wouldn't that be a definition of madness; belief and trust in someone or something without any reason? If we were to question the person who said that they just had faith I am certain we would find a rationale for their belief. It may not be clear or coherent, but it would still be there. 

The Christian faith is predicated on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On an actual person who was born on a specific day in history, who lived, died and was literally raised from the dead. If these things did not take place, then Christians are wasting their time. As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, 'And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.' 1 Corinthians 15:17

To return to the passage in Hebrews 12, this is not an encouragement to have blind faith but rather an explanation of what faith really is. To be sure of what we hope for is to hold fast to what we have given our lives for, what we confidently expect. To be certain of what we do not see is believing in the evidence even though it cannot be seen. For example, I have faith in God, even though I have not seen him, because I believe in the evidence that he exists. The certainty of God's existence for me is based on an inner witness and fellowship with him over many decades, and a confidence that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead. There are other reasons for my faith, a belief that God is the cause and reason for the fine tuning of the universe and the foundation of objective moral values and duties, but important as they may be, they are not fundamental for me

However, I don't want to commit my life to something that is not true, if I am wrong about God and his purpose then I want to be told, I want to know, I want to be corrected. However, I have lived with the reality of God's existence for over forty years and, although not complacent, I have faith that this will continue in the years to come