Faith is a curious thing. For some people, faith is believing in something even though all the evidence suggests that it is untrue. For others, faith is believing in something that the evidence suggests is true. Or rather, faith typically involves believing in someone, rather than something. Faith is required when the truth cannot immediately be conclusively demonstrated. Chapter 11 of the letter to the Hebrews has the following to say about faith:
Faith is the essence of things that are hoped for, the inner conviction about things which are not seen. This is what earned our ancestors God’s approval. By faith, we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that things which can be seen were made out of things which are invisible.
The writer goes on to describe a long list of heroes who had faith in God, and were rewarded by God accordingly. Some say that faith in God is an act of refusal to believe what science has proved; however, in reality the faith exhibited by the heroes of the faith sprang from the evidence provided both by nature and through a lifelong relationship with God in which God time and time again demonstrated himself to be faithful.