Christians are often accused of having blind faith. Punmesiter Bill Maher has said that Christianity stops people from thinking and in essence gives them blind faith. Here’s what he said on Larry King Live

 

You know, I always love to go off on religion; I think it’s one of those most deleterious things ever to come down the pike in human history. I think it has caused more misery. I think it stops people from thinking. Just think of the wasted energy. What could be done if people would channel the energy that they waste towards silly, superstitious pursuits?

Now I think Maher is involved in silly superstitious pursuits himself, because in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Ultimately, what is blind and bigoted is the erection of an imaginary dichotomy between faith and reason.

Speaking to followers of Christ, you might recall that the Apostle Peter says: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). The Bible not only claims that it’s God Word and thus true, but God cannot lie or contradict that which corresponds to reality. Therefore, the Bible presupposes the validity of reason.

Not only so but biblical faith is never blind faith, but rather faith placed in history and evidence. Put another way, the Bible makes many factual claims about reality and offers reasons or evidences in support of such truth claims. For example, the apostle Paul sets forth a list of people who saw Jesus Christ alive again for three day after His Death by crucifixion to remind the Corinthians that the resurrection was a testable and proven fact of history (1 Cor. 15:3-8)

In stark contrast to people like Bill Maher, the Bible promotes open-minded reasoning. Far from letting the facts lead where ever they may, Maher closes his mind to the possibly of supernaturalism and blindly places faith in philosophical naturalism, even when it’s tenets fly directly in the face of reason and evidence. He demonstrates a unique brand of idiosyncratic fundamentalism, because he begins with an anti-supernatural bias and thus rejects God a priori. In place of reason and evidential substance, he traffics in rhetoric and emotional stereotypes as he did in Religulous.

Thankfully, God often uses evidence and sound reasoning, through the witness of reasonable Christians, to break through the blind faith of skeptics in order to turn them towards open-mined contemplation. Truly, the hearer can only fully rejoice in what the mind comprehends.

We need to be prepared to confront the New Village Atheists like Bill Maher and a host of others like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and the list goes on and on. They’re becoming ever more militant, and in the face of this assault against the historical Christian faith, we need to be ready to give an answer. In light of this I’ve prepared a new resource called Confronting The New Village Atheists: Are Christians Really ”Ignorant,” “Stupid,” “Brainwashed,” Or “Insane”? To get your copy log unto our Website at www.equip.org or call us at 1-888-700-0274.


Bill Maher, CNN: Larry King Live, January 28, 2004.