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Faith

Be careful about what you believe

Christians are often accused of passively believing whatever they are told from the pulpit, and for some believers that seems to be true. In the 11th chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul said: “If someone comes and preaches a Jesus different from the one we preached about, or if you hear about a spirit different from the one which you received, or a ‘good news’ different from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”

How can you tell whether the story someone is telling you is true? You need to assess it by reference to what you already know to be true. If the story is inconsistent with the whole message of the Bible, then it is not consistent with true Christian belief. For example, in the Bible Jesus tells us to forgive our enemies and pray for those who persecute us; if someone teaches from the pulpit that we should do otherwise, that person’s message is unlikely to be from God.

It is often said that science and faith are opposites. Science is about rational knowledge; faith is about irrational ideas. This is a deceptive caricature of faith. In reality faith is the set of beliefs that any person has, based on all the available evidence. A person who has faith in the existence of God does so because, based on all the available evidence including scientific observations, he or she considers that God is real. An atheist is a person who puts his or her faith in the non-existence of God.