How Much Faith Should We Put in Faith?

Faith is like a natural instinct over which we have no control. If we could control it then we would all probably be agnostics or atheists as concepts like the Virgin birth, the Trinity, the Resurrection and many others simply cannot be shown to be true.

Despite this empirical disadvantage, i.e. the existence of God cannot be proved conclusively, Catholicism has never had any problem in maintaining and attracting followers over two millennia. The fact that there are currently 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide proves this. Another one billion are Christians from other denominations. That´s a lot of people and makes Christianity the world´s largest religion.

Looking back on history, we see that even as religious beliefs started to come under attack during the so-called Age of Reason and Enlightenment people still remained religious even though they were free to declare themselves non-believers or even atheists.

Atheism has always been an unattractive negative option and is shunned by most people. It offers nothing as a palatable alternative to the mystery of religious faith. Religion has been suppressed throughout history by various regimes, often as a reaction against the power of the existing established church. Russia, Spain and  Mexico are good examples. In all cases this suppression failed.

The collapse of Communism saw not just a revival of faith but religion was once again seen to be an integral part of the Russian soul. Look at how the Orthodox Church has regained its importance as a pillar of the national identity and is seen as a priority for the state. This was certainly not so during Soviet rule.

I remember visiting St Petersburg in 1992 when the Soviet Union was collapsing and was shocked by the state of a church near my hotel which had been left to deteriorate over the decades and then turned into a storage place for animal feed. Jump forward to 2016 when I happened to be in Paris as President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, attended the inauguration of a brand new Russian Orthodox cathedral on the banks of the Seine. The bill for purchasing the land on which the cathedral was built came to US$170 million and was picked up by the Russian state.

China is another example of a Communist power that has failed to crush religion. Although Catholics only number about 10 million in a country with 1.4 billion people, the tyrannical government has been forced to allow the church to operate although it imposes strict conditions. The Vatican has been criticized with some reason for its accord with the Chinese authorities to allow it to preach but regardless of this we know that religion, whether indigenous Chinese or Christianity, will be around when China´s Communist system inevitably suffers the fate of Russia´s.

Despite atheists´ attempts to debunk religion, describing it as mumbo jumbo or wishful thinking, they have never been in a majority. Polls regularly show that most people have some kind of faith even in the more materialistic West. Catholicism is also growing in places like Africa, showing how faith appeals in both the developed and developing worlds.

Atheists are still in a minority because most people are driven by something that makes them feel there is more in life than can be explained purely in scientific terms. That is where faith comes in. An on-line dictionary gives this definition of faith, “ A strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”

But how much faith can we have in our faith? I may have faith but what does it mean? That I believe in everything the Catholic Church preaches, stands for or am I just obeying its orders? Or is my faith founded on a more profound base that I cannot even explain to myself. Am I fooling myself to justify my existence and fear of what lies ahead after my demise? Or is my faith a gift from the very God I believe in?

© John Brander Fitzpatrick 2025