Richard Dawkins once said the following: “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.” While Dawkins was not limiting this statement to the Christian faith alone, he certainly included it. Today we’re going to analyze and respond to this statement as it pertains to the Christian faith.
To begin analyzing this statement, let’s going to split it into three different sections.
1: “Faith is the great excuse to evade evaluating evidence”
2: “Faith is the great excuse to evade thinking”
3: “Faith is the great cop-out”
For our first section let’s start by defining faith. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines faith as “belief and trust in and loyalty to God”. While belief is pretty straight forward, the key word in this definition is trust. Let's go back to Merriam-Webster again to define truth. Truth is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something”. “assured reliance” is the same as “trust.” our trust in God is our faith. It is not just blind trust, but trust we can have because of the evidence God shows us. We can look at the evidence of Our Lord God and we evaluate it. We have not only internal evidence, such as the fact that the bible has not changed over the thousands of years it has existed, but also external evidence, such as the archaeological evidence that proves the existence of cities and people in the Bible. We also have xternal references to Jesus' crucifixion. One can even look at the effect that Christianity has had on the world, and will see that the Christian faith stands out.
So Dawkins’ first point, that “Faith is the great excuse to evade evaluating the evidence”, is not a valid one. We have faith because, even though he may not be apparent today (although to many Christians he is), we can look back on the evidence God has layed down and trust that he is still right here with us. Truly, one could say that the lack of faith is the lack of evaluating the substantial evidence!
This brings us to Dawkins’ second claim: that faith is the “great excuse to evade thinking”? Well, God actually calls us to think, to examine and to learn. In fact, the scientific method is derived from the Bible! During the reformation the method of testing theories with experimentation was derived from 1 Thessalonians 5:21 which reads “Test everything; hold fast to what is good.” This idea of testing and analyzing is all throughout the Bible. Jesus himself engaged in theological conversations that provoked, and too this day provokes, thought.
In the third part of Dawkins' statement, Christianity is accused as being a cop-out. The Mirrium-Webster Dictionary defines cop-out as “to avoid or neglect problems, responsibilities, or commitments.” Dawkins is saying that being a Christian is an excuse for inaction, while it is undeniably the opposite! Christians are called to action by God every day; from helping someone in need, to defending what we think is true. Were the Martyrs of ancient times copping out? Of course not. You see, Christians especially have no excuse for inaction or evasion. A Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit and has nothing to fear. So, in a full response to Dawkins' statement that “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.”, nope nope and nope. This statement is false.
So if you are Christian, walk strong in your faith. We are fully equipped by God to think hard, to evaluate evidence, and to boldly do his work.