A common charge atheists level at Christians is that their faith is blind—that’s to say, their belief is without evidence. In this Ready Reasons video, Karlo explains why this claim is false, and shows that the first-century Christians taught the opposite. They sought to provide unbelievers reasonable evidence for belief.
Transcript:
A common charge atheists level at Christians is that their faith is blind—that’s to say, their belief is without evidence. For example, leading atheist Richard Dawkins writes in the 1997 January-February edition of The Humanist, “Faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the principal vice of any religion.”
How is a Christian to respond?
First, Christianity doesn’t demand that someone believe without evidence. For example, John writes in John 20:31: “[T]hese [Jesus’ signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” John sees his testimony of Jesus’ miracles as sufficient evidence to merit rational belief by those who couldn’t see him perform the signs.
John makes it clear he doesn’t intend nonbelievers to become members of Christianity with blind faith. He is offering his testimony, along with the testimony of the other apostles, as evidence that reason would demand for rational belief. To the nonbeliever who questions, “Why should I believe?”, John is saying, “Because we saw him risen from the dead, we talked to him, we touched him,” etc. This is a far cry from Christianity endorsing blind faith.
Now, if the objector dismisses testimony and says that the only evidence worthy of belief is that which is personally verified, then we would have to reject the whole scientific enterprise, since we can’t personally verify every scientific conclusion made prior to us. But that’s absurd.
So, the charge that Christian faith is blind faith is unfounded, and thus not a reason to reject Christianity.
If you want to learn more about this topic and others like it, visit our website at catholic.com.
For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.