What Faith is and is Not.
Faith has been badly misunderstood. In common usage, it has come to mean believing things without evidence, suspending reason, or accepting comforting stories in place of reality. Under that definition, faith would indeed be irrational — something to be outgrown as knowledge increases. But that definition collapses almost immediately when tested against real human life, because faith, properly understood, is not belief without reason. It is commitment to what reason has already judged to be true.
Faith is hanging on to what you determined to be true despite your changing moods, circumstances, and impulses. It is the discipline of memory in a world that constantly pressures us to forget. Anyone who has ever committed to a spouse or a military regiment already knows this form of faith. The decision was made deliberately, often with cost, and faith is what prevents that decision from being renegotiated every time feelings fluctuate or a more immediately attractive alternative presents itself.
Without this kind of faith, long-term human goods collapse. Promises become provisional, loyalty becomes conditional, and trust becomes impossible. What we often call “freedom” in such a world is really just impulsiveness dressed up as authenticity. Faith, by contrast, is what allows reason to extend through time. It is not opposed to intelligence; it is what intelligence looks like when it refuses to be overruled by every passing desire.
Faith is not ignoring new information or refusing to update bad conclusions. It is not stubbornness or denial borne of intellectual laziness. Revising first principles is not a failure of faith; it is a function of reason. Would the integrity of a house’s walls preclude the inspection and repair of the foundation as needed? Of course not. Faith governs endurance, not inquiry. Confusing faith with credulity turns a virtue into a vice and gives skeptics an easy target they don’t deserve.
This may be easiest to see in marriage. To be faithful to one’s spouse is not to love them for irrational reasons. It is to hold fast to the reasons that led to a public, costly commitment even when circumstances turn unpleasant. A faithful husband does not renegotiate his vows when affection cools, conflict arises, or a more flattering alternative appears. A faithful wife operates as if her husband is present even when he is absent longer than he should be. None of this is illogical. It is reason carried forward through time.
This may be made clear by the words derived from it. For instance, to be faithful to one’s spouse is not to love them for nonsensical reasons. A faithful husband is one who hangs onto all the reasons he committed his life to his wife before God and everybody even when she has been mean, withholding, and now one finds themselves the object of a better woman’s affection. Similarly a faithful wife is one who operates as if her husband is by her side even when he’s absent for much longer than he should be. In no way is any of this illogical.
In fact, the deeper and more carefully reasoned a commitment is, the more likely a person is to remain faithful to it. Shallow commitments fail quickly because they were never anchored to reality in the first place. Most betrayals are not acts of insight; they are acts of forgetfulness combined with impulse. Given that humans live in communities and depend on one another, it is difficult to think of an immoral act that is not also arguably stupid.
Faith preserves what reason has concluded, but it cannot help us reach the right conclusions to preserve. A ladder may be well built and firmly held, but its value still depends on what it is leaned against. Endurance alone is not enough. Direction matters. Any serious account of faith eventually raises a more foundational question: faith in what—and why?
Wrong conclusions do not merely exist; they are the default. There are far more ways to build a clock that does not keep time than one that does. Faith is powerful precisely because it preserves and amplifies whatever it is attached to. For that reason, faith alone is not enough. Clarifying first principles, reasoning carefully from them, and understanding their implications matters even more. Failed faith in what is true can be corrected. Successful faith in what is false is far more difficult to undo.
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