What is Real Faith?

C. Michael Patton, writing for Parchment and Pen, has a great essay on the nature of real faith.

He writes:

Bill O’Reilly, in an interview with Richard Dawkins this year, illustrated what our current conception of faith is today. As his belief in God was being challenged by Dawkins’ intellectual attacks, O’Reilly did not have much of an answer. After being questioned by Dawkins as to whether he believed in other gods such as Zeus, Apollo, or Thor, O’Reilly responds by saying that he is “throwing in with Jesus.” He goes on to say that he cannot prove that Christ is God, but that Christ is God to him because it helps him. His faith was relegated to the realm of societal and personal pragmatism. While Dawkins did not do too good considering the burden that he had, O’Reilly should not have been in this discussion representing the Christian worldview. In the end his faith rested on “throwing in.” In other words, his defense was not unlike Pascals’ wager where the defense becomes “While my faith may be a blind faith, as it stands right now your faith (atheism) is more blind. I will just choose the lesser of two evils.”

What gets me is this. How is it that Bill O’Reilly thought it sufficient enough to blindly “throw in” on a subject that is so important. O’Reilly never just “thows in.” O’Reilly is never unprepared. He is never uninformed on a subject with which he speaks upon. Whether you agree with him or not, his passions are not blindly held in politics or social issues; in these areas that are based upon his studies and critical analysis of the issues involved. Yet when it comes to the question of God (something He holds very dear), he simply resorts to a uninformed blind faith.

In fairness to O’Reilly, this is not uncommon within the culture or in the church. Faith has become redefined to “that which you ‘throw in’ with.” The answer to the question, How do we know Christianity is true? is illustrated best in this beloved hymn: “You ask me how I know He lives? . . . He lives within my heart.” This subjective answer is simply not good enough. It is insufficient and irresponsible. If our faith is relegated to a blind leap into the dark and our answer to the hope that lies within us is limited to the typical “Because I know that I know that I know it is true,” then we don’t really have a message that shines any brighter or truer than all the religions of the world.

Read the whole thing.