Reasons I Believe Intro: Faith and Pre-Assumptions

 

Faith is an interesting word. The very nature of the word conveys the idea of trusting that what a particular source says is right. The source of that trust can be a personal experience, a religious text, or patterns that you observe in life. When one chooses to believe what they have determined to be facts, then that too is an act of faith. Faith is trusting a source. The source of my faith is ultimately the Christian Bible. There are reasons for this, and I will tease these reasons out over the next several weeks through this blog, but I say this now as an example that faith requires a source. The difference between faith and opinion is that faith is based on what a trusted source says, and opinions seem to have their roots in one’s own thoughts. We all have opinions; however, my faith is built on a trusted source. Instead of speculating, I draw upon the wisdom of what this trusted source says about a subject.

Why am I writing about this? I wanted to take about seven additional blog posts to lay out the major reasons why I believe in the Christian faith. Am I looking to convince you as a reader to place your faith in Christ? Of course! Why wouldn’t I? What would it say about my confidence in the Christian faith if I didn’t think it mattered. However, my main hope is that the ideas and concepts that I have wrestled with over the years would cause you to think more deeply about why you believe what you believe. To even have this conversation, I must define faith and establish a baseline for the rest of the blog entries. Faith is a critical word to define. A Biblical faith is described in Hebrews 11:1 as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Yet, what is hoped for and what is not seen is based on what was promised in words. Ultimately, what one believes about this world comes by faith, though the source of that faith may be very different. At some point, we all place our trust in something, even if that “something” is packaged as facts. So the question is not whether you have faith, rather what source informs your faith.

Another baseline issue before sharing the reasons behind why I believe in the Christian faith is simply that no individual is completely objective. We all have pre-assumptions that shape how we will interpret data we receive. People will sometimes throw out this line about something being fact based on the data they received; however, I have learned over the years that there are many nuances and factors in data collection and interpretation that are skewed to fit a narrative. Often that very same data is interpreted based on pre-assumptions. I am not here to argue that pre-assumptions are bad, but that we all have them. They hinder us from objectivity and shape how we want to see things. I am fully aware that my pre-assumption that God exists shapes the way I look at data. So my aim is not to be completely unbiased, for that is impossible, but to try and be as honest as I can knowing I am dealing with my own biases as well. This will be especially relevant as I ask questions like:

• How did life begin?
• Is there purpose to life?
• Is morality a thing?
• Has God made Himself known?
• Is there hope?

I plan to share seven reasons why I hold to the Christian faith. These seven reasons in a nutshell are:

1. Everything in the observable world screams designer.
2. The presence of morality necessitates a moral law giver.
3. The Bible is unified in telling one story.
4. The Bible gives consistent and coherent answers to the deepest questions of life.
5. The historical underpinnings of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are too substantiated to ignore.
6. Christianity is a message of hope that gives me life!
7. Bottom Line: We are back to faith.

I hope you are able to stick with me through all of this and it causes you to think even a little bit deeper about why you believe what you believe.