Evidence · Case 09 · Atheism
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Richard Dawkins defines faith, in the strongest form of this objection, as belief held with no evidence, and even against the evidence. In The Selfish Gene he describes faith as “blind trust, in the absence of evidence.”
Sources
Objections & responses
- Whatever pistis meant in the first century, “faith” in ordinary modern Christian usage often does mean believing without or against evidence. Pastors say “just have faith” when evidence runs out. Isn’t Dawkins describing a real phenomenon?
Yes, and that should be conceded. Dawkins’s definition is not how the Bible uses the word, but it is how many Christians use it, and that usage is the source of the caricature. The claim here is about biblical vocabulary, and the popular usage is a departure from it. Conceding that makes the claim more credible, not less: the argument is with a definition, not with Dawkins’s observation of how the word gets thrown around.
- Dawkins isn’t a philosopher or a biblical scholar. Refuting his definition is easy and doesn’t touch the serious evidentialist challenge from Clifford, Flew, and contemporary philosophers of religion.
True. This claim is aimed at the popular objection because it is the one people actually hear. The serious version of the challenge is evidentialism, the view that belief should be proportioned to evidence, and the Philosophy case engages Clifford directly. Nothing here pretends that answering Dawkins answers Clifford.