I watched a debate between a Christian and atheist. The atheist position was that reason was the source of reality. The Christian stance was faith as the source. Both positions gave me cause for pause.

I don’t understand the atheist position because typically their stance is that all is created by random connections coalescing into a coherent reality. Coherent and reason both defy random. I don’t understand how the atheists wed the two into a mutually supportive ideology.

The Christian talked about faith as though it is unprovable, but possibly only in the context of the statements about “reason.” I feel faith is perfectly provable as it always leaves a trail, like the dinosaurs left their bones and archeologists prove all that we’ve never seen by what it has left in its wake. Detectives prove unseen facts by verifiable residues left at crime scenes.

Faith is verifiable because our culture and life have been created by it. People believed, so they pursued, then they found and established. The theorists believed that an atom could be split and a bomb could be made. Their faith was proved as they pursued and manifested the truth of the belief. All discoveries, even the flat world/round world, and all scientific discoveries, all started in faith before being proved by outcomes or artifacts. Much of the entire debate about evolution, for or against, is still in faith form with both sides assembling facts and knowledge available at this stage of discovery by their faith viewpoint or focus.

Why is faith treated like it is the residence of fools when it is the moving factor in all historical, cultural, and scientific moves from our deepest past, to now, and into our next step in life. People go forward and pursue possibilities because they have faith they exist.

The debate made me wonder if we are reasoning or rationalizing, reasoning to understand facts and truth or rationalizing to defend or establish a preferred viewpoint. The Pharisees and Sadducees knew the truth of the church and were confident that Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah. Yet, there He was, right in front of them, doing what the Messiah was supposed to do according to their own prophecies and faith. Humans are confusing. It is easier to have faith in God.