Reasonable Faith

My daughter is a 21-Pilots fan. Proof: today she bought pre-sales tickets to their December show, where they will play music she hasn’t even heard yet because their album isn’t due out until next month. What if their new album is a terrible disappointment? She might have to sit through a whole concert of terrible music... 

But her purchase is an act of faith. The good kind: reasonable, not blind. The kind that makes for good relationships. There's not an iron-clad guarantee but there are enough reasons to make it worthy of trust. 

Her faith is based on good reasons: their prior performances, the music she has already heard, the interactions she has already enjoyed in the fandom, their demonstrated trustworthiness as people to date. So she has good reasons to trust that the boys will deliver a concert worth the price of entry. So she bought in. 

My faith is based on good reasons: God’s prior performances (in demonstrably reliable histories, writings and prophecies), the ‘music’ I have heard already in this life (the good, true, beautiful, life-giving ways that really work), the interactions with God I have already enjoyed alone and together with other believers, the demonstrated trustworthiness and wisdom of God’s character. I have plenty of good reasons to trust that God will deliver a Life worth whatever price he asks of me. So I bought in. 

Some disparage “faith” per se as if it is blind, based on nothing. Some people seem to blindly believe cliches and assumptions, but these days I’d say that's far more likely among the agnostics of main-stream culture than among the Christians who go against the flow. Most Christians I know have had to challenge the mainstream cliches and assumptions, and have come to my daughter’s kind of faith, a reasonable and well-founded relationship.

When people actually examine the reasons for this kind of faith, they often become ready to buy in. 


Deeper reflections: 
The Limits of Proof
The Phenomenal and the Noumenal - Noumenal realities are important and life-directing. Yet the more noumenal a reality is, the greater the need for good and sufficient reasons. Good reasons are there. Go get 'em. 

Is the church better or worse than most people think?
The Centre for Public Christianity has produced a massive resource on that topic. It's hours of good stuff, more than enough. 

• Here is the point in a 2 minute nutshell: it's not religion but humans that cause the wars, cruelty, etc. They - we - distort good things into bad by our selfishness, greed, fear, laziness, shame, brokenness, incapacity - all of which are aspects of what the Bible calls, "sin." 

You could spend a year going through the details CPX has provided - movies, documentaries, clips, group discussion sheets, school resources. So if you're wondering about it - get into it! You'll have your questions more than answered on this topic. 
But don't miss all the other material CPX has on other topics too. There's a search bar for libraries of articles, videos and podcasts on:

• Topics people ask about Christianity
• Training for Christians to handle ourselves better in public
• Foundations of the Christian faith. 

In my work I focus mostly on the Foundations. How we know that the basics of Christianity are true - that God exists, that the Bible is reliable, and that Jesus rose from the dead. And how these truths fit together to make a really solid and positive foundation for your life. Core Stuff and Boost. The bare minimum info, skills, and relationship that teens really need before they leave home. 
I believe if you keep this Core Stuff central to your life, you'll be far less likely to distort good things into bad. 

But then what comes next?

• CPX is there with such a wealth of answers to many perplexing questions (like "doesn't religion cause wars.") Besides sometimes people's faith doesn't start with the foundations, but with a curiosity about a topic, and CPX's good answers on those topics can then connect people to the core stuff. 
• I'd also add creation.com for a balance of answers around science & creation. 
• And of course churches are the real people who will share life with you as you live out the faith.

​Good answers are there. Go get 'em! 

It became a presentation, CSI: Christ Scene Investigation. We personally investigated how the sites agree with the texts of the Core Stuff. We saw for ourselves:

• that God knows best how to look after the Land he created and make it flourish - Neot Kedumim
• reminders of our human sin, which makes a Saviour necessary - Holocaust museum, soldiers, checkpoints, crime, and disparate worldviews 
• where Bible texts were so accurately scribed and preserved, containing prophecies fulfilled by the Messiah - Qumran. And we saw some parts of those actual texts from the time of Christ with our own eyes - Shrine of the Book
• where Jesus was born - grotto under the Church of the Nativity
• where Jesus grew up and worked - Nazareth and Sepphoris
• Jesus hometown during his ministry years - Capernaum 
• where he taught and did miracles - Mt of Beatitudes, Kursi, Magdala, Tabgha, Tiberias, Cana, Galilee, Baptism site over Jordan, Mt of Temptations, "Old" Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, clues to the location of the Temple, excavations of David's City, Mt of Olives  
• where Jesus endured Passion Week - Palm Sunday Road, Upper Room, Gethsemane, Caiaphas's House, Roman Praetorium and Pavement  
• where Jesus died for all our sins, and rose defeating sin and death - Gordon's Garden site / Church of Holy Sepulchre / a view from approximate Red Heifer site on Mt of Olives. We checked all three. The former is the best preserved site for us to get a sense of place, and may even be it. 
• where Jesus appeared post resurrection - Garden, Emmaeus, Upper room, a Galilean mountain
• where he ascended - Mt of Olives Church of the Ascension
• where he descended as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - Upper Room