Does God demand blind faith?

Conversations with Matthew #3

Since early 2020, I’ve been DMing with a follower on X named Matthew about Christian faith. He asks great questions—ones I suspect others wrestle with too—so I’m sharing some of our exchanges here. Matthew asks:

Does God want us to believe in him based on blind faith/no evidence? Would you say he gives us evidence that he exists that is available to everybody? Or does he expect people to believe for no reason? Because the latter would seem ridiculous.

A common critique from atheists is that Christian faith equates to believing in God without evidence—a kind of blind leap into the void. But is that accurate? Does anyone truly believe anything for no reason? People always have reasons, even if others deem them insufficient. Atheists often argue that Christians believe in God because of their upbringing, a fear of death, or a desire for comfort, and that such belief persists despite evidence to the contrary. However, this oversimplifies the Christian perspective and ignores the evidence many believers point to as foundational to their faith.

So, what does God want from us?

Speaking on God’s behalf can be risky, but thankfully scripture does that for me. The Bible strongly suggests God does not expect belief based on blind faith. Romans 1:20 states, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” This verse implies that the created world itself serves as evidence of God’s existence, accessible to all.

My family’s story illustrates this. My grandparents were devout Catholics who raised their children in the faith. Yet, in the rebellious 1960s, my parents and nearly all their siblings rejected religion, casting it aside with other societal norms. Curious, my aunt once asked my grandmother why she believed in God. My grandmother opened her arms, gesturing to the world around them. It was a simple but profound invocation of Romans 1:20—the natural world as evidence of a purposeful intelligent design.

Far from offering no evidence, the universe itself testifies to God’s existence. Its order, complexity, and the seemingly timeless laws of physics—such as gravity and thermodynamics—point to a purposeful design. Psalm 19:1 reinforces this: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” The very existence of something rather than nothing demands explanation, as nothingness requires no cause, while existence cries out for one. This concept, known as general revelation, holds that God’s existence is evident to all through creation.

My own journey to faith reflects this. As an undergraduate physics student who was losing faith in atheism, I was struck by the universe’s lawfulness. The consistency of physical laws across time and space, the universe’s openness to scientific scrutiny—especially from Earth—seemed almost miraculous. Why should the cosmos be so comprehensible? This realization propelled me past agnosticism to theism. Without reading a Bible, attending church, or being evangelized, I saw God’s fingerprints in the universe, as if He had written “Here I am!” across the heavens.

Scripture consistently shows God revealing Himself through evidence, not demanding blind faith. In the Old Testament, God’s presence is unmistakable: the plagues against Pharaoh (Exodus 7–12), the voice in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1–6), and manna from heaven for the Israelites (Exodus 16). When Job questioned God, God didn’t demand blind belief. Instead, He offered a vivid description of His creative power (Job 38–41), pointing to the universe as evidence of His trustworthiness. Even neighboring tribes, who often rejected God, witnessed His works through Israel’s experiences.

In the New Testament, God’s revelation becomes even more direct through Jesus. Jesus didn’t simply ask for belief; He provided evidence through miracles—healing the sick (John 9:1–7), feeding thousands (Matthew 14:13–21), and raising the dead (John 11:38–44). His teachings carried an authority that left listeners astonished (Matthew 7:28–29). The resurrection, the cornerstone of Christian faith, was not a distant event. Jesus appeared to His disciples, letting them see and touch His wounds, eat with Him, and converse over days (John 20:19–29; Acts 1:3). This transformed the disciples from fearful followers into bold proclaimers of the gospel, many fearlessly dying as martyrs.

The Bible itself, the most widely distributed book in history, provides further evidence. It contains historically verifiable details—names, dates, and places, many corroborated by archaeology, such as the existence of Pontius Pilate (Luke 3:1) or the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:2). The apostle Paul, commissioned by Jesus Himself, urged discernment, not blind acceptance: “Test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This call to reason suggests faith should be grounded in evidence.

My ministry focuses on natural evidence for God, which I find abundant. The Genesis 1 account of creation, with its ordered progression, aligns with a purposeful design. Beyond this, a near-universal sense of morality—however imperfectly applied—seems written onto human hearts (Romans 2:14–15). Millions of credible near-death experiences suggest glimpses of a supernatural realm, challenging purely materialistic explanations. The pervasive human belief in the supernatural across cultures and eras is not easily dismissed as an evolutionary quirk; it’s much more plausible that this intuition reflects a genuine spiritual reality.

So, no, I don’t believe God asks for belief without evidence, nor against it, as some critics claim. The universe, scripture, historical testimony, and human experience provide ample signs of His existence. Yet, evidence alone does not compel faith. At some point, the signs pointing to God—His creation, His works, His Son—must be sufficient. The question remains: what do we do with this evidence? That choice, God leaves to us.

Related: Holding on to a God I can’t see

Sorta related: One of my hobbies is cartooning—I’ve been at it since I learned to do caricatures when I was in high school. The original plan for Schrödinger’s Poodle was as a webcomic, but it has since morphed into this newsletter. I still plan to launch the webcomic sometime down the road, but for now I’m incorporating more of my cartoons and illustrations into weekly articles. Some of my previous cartoons are here:

The Concern Parabola
Absurdist Tips on Life (my fave)
How to Commit Heresy Using Physics
Boltzmann Brains
A Nietzsche Causal Loop Diagram (my second fave)

Note to would-be critics in the comments: If you don’t agree with my points and you want to talk about it, let’s chat. If you have questions, ask away. But there’s a good chance I’ve already addressed your questions and criticisms here. Please read that first before you engage.

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