Is Faith in Christ Reasonable?

Why Christian Faith Is Built on Evidence, Not Blind Belief.

Faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ is the very foundation of Christian belief. In fact, the historical resurrection is so central that Paul openly challenges the early church when he writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:14)

So when skeptics throw out quips like “faith is believing without evidence,” it’s understandable that Christians may feel a moment of uncertainty. One of my personal favorites comes from pop-culture astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who famously claimed, “This is why religions are called faiths, because you believe something in the absence of evidence.”

These statements are punchy, memorable, and confidently delivered, but are they accurate descriptions of what Christians mean by faith?

When discussing whether Christian faith is reasonable, it’s important to recognize two truths:

1. Everyone has faith in something.

2. Faith in Christ is not blind belief, but reasoned trust.

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Everyone Has Faith in Something

Let’s go back to Tyson for a moment. If he rejects the existence of God, then by necessity he must believe that life arose naturally. There is no third option.

But here’s the problem: abiogenesis (life coming from non-life) has never once been observed in nature. It has never been replicated in a lab. And even if one day scientists could manufacture life under controlled conditions, that would only demonstrate that intelligent agents can produce life, which is precisely what believers in God argue.

Worse for the naturalistic view, the mathematics are brutal. With what we currently know about the complexity of even the simplest cell and the limited time available in the early earth, the odds of life forming spontaneously are astronomically low—so low that many scientists describe it as effectively impossible (a discussion for another day).¹

Tyson therefore places his faith in an unproven, unobserved, mathematically improbable process and trusts that science will eventually figure it out.

That’s not meant to be an insult, it is simply a recognition of reality:

Even the most brilliant minds eventually reach a point where their worldview still depends on faith.

This is not an argument against science or searching for answers that have natural explanations. Nor is a lack of evidence for abiogenesis proof of God’s existence. Rather, the point is this:

No worldview operates without faith.

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Faith in Christ Is Not Blind Belief, but Reasoned Trust

While some place their trust in unproven natural processes, Christians place their trust in a personal, all-powerful Creator. And only one of those options has historical, philosophical, and scientific evidence pointing in its direction.

It is simply false to claim that Christian faith is belief without evidence. Beyond the countless testimonies of Christians transformed by Christ, the Christian worldview is supported by multiple lines of objective evidence.

Here are a few examples:

1. Science shows the universe had a beginning → therefore a Beginner.

   
   Cosmology, physics, and astronomy all agree: the universe had a beginning. And everything that begins to exist requires a cause (the law of causation). Since the universe is made of space, time, and matter, its cause must be beyond space, beyond time, and beyond matter. In other words—a spaceless, timeless, immaterial cause.
   

2. The universe is fine-tuned → therefore a Tuner.
   
   Over 120 physical constants are set at precisely the values required for life. Even tiny changes would render the universe lifeless. Much like a finely tuned watch or engine, precision points to purpose, not accident.
   

3. DNA contains complex information → therefore a Writer.
   
   DNA is not random chemistry; it is coded information—mathematically identical to highly compressed digital language. Information always comes from a mind.
   

4. There is an Objective Moral Law → therefore a Moral Lawgiver.
   
   Across cultures and time, certain moral truths, like the wrongness of murder, or the valor of dying for loved ones, are universally recognized. A universal moral law requires a universal source.
   

5. The New Testament is historically reliable → therefore worth trusting.
   
   The 27 books of the New Testament are the best-attested documents in ancient history, confirmed by thousands of manuscripts and multiple non-Christian sources. To reject its historical value is to reject the entire field of ancient history.

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Now it’s true that none of these points alone “proves God” in a courtroom sense. But taken together, they form a powerful cumulative case that faith in Christ is not blind, but the most reasonable conclusion from the evidence.

I would argue, much like Dr Frank Turek does, that it ironically requires much more “blind” faith to be an atheist.

1. Clark R. Bates, Faith Examined: New Arguments for Persistent Questions, Essays in Honor of Dr. Frank Turek (October 13, 2023), introduction and “Abiogenesis: No Time, No Chance—No Way!,”