Properly understood, faith is, as I have explained elsewhere, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen” (Heb. 11:1). It is in other words a kind of trust, particularly a trust in that which have good reason to believe.

This stands in marked contrast to what many atheists of today claim faith to be. According to Richard Dawkins, faith is “belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence”. Another well known non-believer, Bill Maher, describes it as “the purposeful suspension of critical thinking”.

Both men are wrong, and laughably so. Indeed, what I propose to show in this post is that the kind of blind faith which the likes of Dawkins and Maher purport to reject is the very faith which they as atheists are forced to hold. So then, here are ten reasons why I haven’t enough “faith” to be an atheist:

1. Something Out of Nothing.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that the universe suddenly popped into existence un-caused from nothing, by nothing, and into nothing.

2. Life from Non-Life.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that inanimate objects were what gave rise to primordial life.

3. Origins of Consciousness.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that an ape or any other animal has the capacity to become a conscious, rational being through purely natural means.

4. Freedom of the Will.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that we are mere clumps of cells whose every action is pre-determined by material conditions.

5. Objective Morality.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that objective morality is naught but an illusion and that ultimately there is no such thing as right and wrong.

6. Order in the Universe.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that the amazing mathematical and physical structure found in the universe is simply the product of blind chance.

7. Supernatural Phenomena.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that the millions of recorded instances of miracles, spiritual activity, and answers to prayer are no more than happy coincidences.

8. Cosmic Fine-Tuning.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that the exquisite fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life is just an accident.

9. Complexity of the Natural World.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that evolutionary theory is sufficient to explain the breath-taking beauty and complexity found in nature.

10. Personal Experience.

I haven’t enough faith to believe that the vast majority of people who have lived, and the vast majority of people alive today, are all utterly deluded for believing in the divine.