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“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

—II Corinthians v:7

There are a great many things in this world which are not provable. To sort through the vast seas of falsehood and triviality in order to find the perpetually elusive Truth is one of the great problems of life. “If you had fought at the battle of Philippi,” states Voltaire, “that is for you a truth which you know by intuition, perception.”1 That is to say, the things which we experience firsthand are usually considered to be, to us, the truth. But there are a great many happenings and particulars in our universe to which we are not immediate observers. The battle of Philippi, for example, is for all who were not in fact present, “merely a very probable thing.” Perhaps it is made known to us by those who were actually present. But, as Voltaire notes, even if twelve-thousand eye-witnesses testified to the proceedings, it would yet not equal the certainty of a man who had actually seen it. Very probable it would be, indeed, but it would not have been proven, to us, to be true.

Further still, perhaps there is only a single eye-witness to the event, or lacking that, a person who has heard the firsthand account of someone present. Perchance one’s only connection to the battle of Philippi is a professor who quoted a history textbook, itself an amalgam of various historians who perhaps even themselves never spoke to a single participant in the conflict. The strength of our belief is therefore proportional to the evidence supporting it.

In addition, there are different ways of measuring the strength of our belief. We may believe that the battle of Philippi took place, based on very little evidence, simply because there is no reason to believe the contrary. But, supposing some new piece of information came to light, we wouldn’t be very hesitant to change views. It simply doesn’t matter to us that much.

On the other hand, an associate may tell us that rain is forecasted for today. We have no reason to believe him, nor have we looked at the sky ourselves to judge. He may not even be usually correct in his predictions of the weather. Yet we believe him to such an extent as to bring along an umbrella in our travels. We may not very fervently believe it will rain, but there is a causal relationship between our belief and our actions.


Now, faith is considered by most Christians to be one of the principal virtues. This seems more than a little odd to some: “Is it a virtue to believe? either what you believe seems true to you, and in this case there is no merit in believing; or it seems false to you, and then it is impossible for you to believe.”2 Or, as another puts it, “What is there moral or immoral about believing or not believing a set of statements? ... a sane man accepts or rejects any statement, not because he wants to or does not want to, but because the evidence seems to him good or bad. If he were mistaken about the goodness or badness of the evidence that would not mean he was a bad man, but only that he was not very clever. And if he thought the evidence bad but tried to force himself to believe in spite of it, that would be merely stupid.”3

Faith is more than a mere belief in something. The belief is actuated by evidence, and if the evidence is honestly examined and the beliefs rationally formed, there is nothing moral nor immoral about such a belief. But faith implies a causal relationship. Once belief in a particular tenet is established, through weight of evidence or whatever manner, action predicated on that belief is not necessarily implied. As James so clearly states, “the devils also believe” in God, and yet this simple belief does not drive them to any meritorious works.4 Faith is required.


And yet faith is not merely an action which springs from a logically reasoned belief. Faith consists of more than this. Faith also connotes a rigid continuous belief, a constancy despite outside influences. Our belief itself is formed through rational cogitation on the significance of evidence for and against. However, other things inevitably interfere which, in spite of having no logical bearing on the truthfulness of the subject, would make it more convenient for the matter to be decided differently.

It happens all the time. Our emotions may tell us that we must take another slice of chocolate cake, even though we had previously examined the subject rationally and decided we ought to abstain. No real evidence has suddenly come up to necessitate this change of mind; rather it is our passions getting the best of us. Perhaps we’ve decided logically that it is not in our best interests to lie, and we’ve committed ourselves to honesty. And yet, in the heat of the moment, we feel very much inclined to deliver a falsehood. Again, no re-evaluation of our beliefs has been performed; indeed, our belief may very well remain intact. Faith means that, even when it is not very convenient to do so, we stick by our original decisions in spite of the emotional barrage that comes our way. Without this faithfulness to our beliefs—disregarding the whims of our moods, wishes, and emotions—a man is but “a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.”5


Now I have been speaking as if faith were the most rational thing in the world, and for the most part it is. But there is a particular manner in which faith, in a religious context, is considerably different from most other situations. Faith almost always denotes a belief of things not seen, nor seeable, yet for which evidence exists. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”6 This is considerably different from, for example, a belief that China exists. Even though we’ve never seen China (and perhaps don’t even know personally anyone who has), we remain relatively confident that a person could travel to China to ascertain the truth of the matter, so the very fact that there aren’t a considerable lot of people postulating the non-existence of China leaves us fairly comfortable in our conviction.

Religious beliefs are in quite a different realm. We are many generations removed from any who claim to have seen the Almighty or heavenly messengers. Likewise we do not consider it possible for a person to simply schedule a rendezvous with angels with the same facility as a tour of Beijing. It is not possible for us to verify, with our own eyes, the truthfulness of religious doctrine. Fortunately, there are other, non-visual, evidences of the divine.

An analogous situation appears in the story of a janitor at a nuclear testing facility. Watching scientists experiment with high energy particles, he disgustedly declared, “You are all liars, pretending that you are doing something important, but you can’t fool me. I know that if you can’t see, hear, taste, smell, or touch it, it doesn’t exist.”7 Simply because something is not discernable by our five senses does not automatically indicate it is nonexistent. As with nuclear physics, there are certain “experiments” one can perform in order to uncover the truthfulness of God’s word.

Alma compares the word of God to a seed.8 If there is a seed, and we want to know its species, the easiest experiment to find out the true nature of the seed is simply to plant and nourish it. When the seed has grown, and the tree has borne fruit, the qualities of the seed become obvious. So it is with God’s word. First we must follow God’s commandments—perhaps beginning in a particular area. As we follow his word, we begin to notice it growing, swelling, and blossoming in our life—in other words, it produces good fruit. The consequence of following the Lord is a positive result. For Alma, faith is that ability to plant the seed, or follow God’s word, before you know for certain what the outcome will be. If the seed grows and produces good fruit, then it is good—but if it doesn’t, then you must “cast it away”. However, Alma cautions us not to neglect the tree, for if we take “no thought for its nourishment”, it will never produce good fruit, no matter how good the seed itself is.


Thus, faith is often characterized as a type of trust. If over the years, the counsel of a friend has proven sagacious, we develop a deep trust in him. When he subsequently informs us of something quite fantastic and unlikely, we believe what he says based on our confidence in him. It is not a “blind faith” in his words, in the sense that “blind faith” is to believe something with no logical evidence or reason. Our reason is based on our past experiences with him. But it is faith in that, were it not for our trust in our friend’s wise judgement, we would never otherwise believe such an incredible tale.

It is this sort of trust which Christianity urges us to obtain in Deity. Begin with the small and simple things, obtaining evidence for yourselves that the word of God truly is reliable. As your belief grows, allow this belief to increasingly influence your daily actions. Do not let your emotions or passions overrule the rational choices you have made. As your trust increases, the more “fantastic and unlikely” the things God is able to work through you. As a result, the promised fruit for the faithful is nothing less than happiness in this life, and a fullness of joy in the next.9

  1. Voltaire, “Truth”. Philosophical Dictionary. Selected and translated by H.I. Woolf. New York: Knopf, 1924
  2. Voltaire, “Virtue”. Philosophical Dictionary. Selected and translated by H.I. Woolf. New York: Knopf, 1924
  3. Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity, 120.
  4. James ii:19
  5. Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity, 122.
  6. Hebrews xi:1
  7. Scott, Richard G. “The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing.” 173rd Annual General Conference, Ensign, May 2003, 76.
  8. See Alma 32:28-43.
  9. See Proverbs 16:20 and Psalm 16:11.

June 2003