What Is Faith?

As much as we try to automate large experiments, sometimes a scientist just has to stay up all night to  watch the data stream.  Of course, most of the time things are fine so the watchers don't have much to do.  A few months ago i was data-watching with some other grad students from my lab when the conversation turned to religion, specifically where Jesus came from and why.  Since it isn't weird in big collaborations for someone with a particular expertise to answer a question with an extended lecture (and because we had all night), i gave a brief summary of the Old Testament starting with Abra(ha)m who by faith believed that his descendents would be a blessing to all people and then tracing his descendents through to Jesus, the Savior of all people.

After digesting this, one of my lab-mates said "You keep using this word, faith. What does 'faith' mean?"  That's a tough question at 2AM.  For a scientific audience, the best i could come up with was "Faith is confidence in a result even when you don't have overwhelming evidence in hand all the time."  For example, suppose you measure a quantity in the lab for the first time.  You don't just publish a number, you include error bars.  At first, you publish large error bars or wide confidence limits.  You have some faith in your abilities and equipment, but you've only done this once and your reputation is on the line.  As you refine the experiment and other people try it in their labs, you begin to zero in on a more precise number; your faith in your technique has grown.  Eventually, your result is included in scientific handbooks and used by people who have never measured it themselves because they have faith that you are a careful researcher and the peer review process has ensured that this is a good number.  In the same way a new Christian starts with faith in a Jesus they've mostly heard about.  They believe the basics, but without much experience they're not going to stake much on specific claims about God's character.  As they spend time with God and gain experience, their faith grows.

My friend thought about this for a minute and replied "That makes sense.  But why do Christians need a separate word for that?  Isn't that just being a person?"  My gut reaction was to defend how Christian faith is special.  But sitting in this group of aspiring scientists, it wasn't.  Every person in that room has personally subjected the things we corporately believe (in this case physics) to intense scrutiny, and then proceeded with a confidence that makes the average Christian's faith look like a toy.  We rehearse our fundamental beliefs as a group on an almost daily basis.  We've all been wrong many times and we've all doubted ourselves when we were right.  But we know we can rely on each other for correction and reassurance.

Many scientists i know are wary of religion in general and Christianity in particular because they think it calls for blind faith, which side-steps the whole experiential refining process.  They understand that what you believe is far more important than how much you believe it and that unexamined beliefs can't grow.  But when it was explained what real faith looks like, the objection of at least this group was the opposite.  Why do Christians make such a big deal about faith when scientists have so much more of it?