Faith: reflecting on evidence   This post has been edited and
expanded. The full version can be found here.   There seems to
be a great deal of confusion among non-Christians about the
meaning of the word “faith” in a Christian context. The
prominent atheist evangelist Richard Dawkins writes that:
“Faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the
principle vice of any religion.” And further: “[whereas]
scientific belief is based upon publicly checkable evidence,
religious faith not only lacks evidence; its independence from
evidence is its joy, shouted from the rooftops”. And thus we see
that for Dawkins (and many atheists), religious faith is blind
faith.  But such a view is totally at odds with the view of
faith presented in the Bible and maintained throughout
mainstream Christianity. The biblical narrative is full of
references to faith based overwhelmingly on evidence. This was
the whole reason that the apostle John wrote his gospel: “these
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ