Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Substance of things hoped for? Huh? Evidence of things not seen? Appears to fall right in line with the atheist's assumptions. But hold on. There is more to chapter 11 than verse 1. The author then goes on to list several examples to illustrate what is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. What do those multiple examples show? They show people having faith in someone that becomes the evidence of things not seen, and the substance of things hoped for.
In short, faith is not some magical answer to every "God of the gaps" issue that comes along, as atheist tend to portray it. That is the creating a straw man and knocking it over, though I'll grant that some Christian groups do teach faith in that manner. Rather, faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen because of faith placed in a person, like God or Jesus. Because we have faith that they are who they say they are, we come to trust their words. The Bible, for one point.
I know what an atheist would say at this point. They would point out that there is little reason to put their faith in the Bible, or even in Jesus, and His belief in the Scriptures. They would point out that there is little reason to put one's faith in the Christian God over other competing gods, like Allah, the Jewish god, or even the multiple gods of Indian religion or of Greek/Roman mythology.
I could go through an apologetic here of why one should place their faith in Jesus, but that would take us a ways from the point of this short devotional. The point being that the evidence isn't missing, it is simply not pointing to a something, but a someone, namely, God. You either have faith in someone, that what they say is the truth or not, or you don't. Nor does it preclude the other person having some evidence upon which they place their faith in said person.
Because the average person does the same thing with science. Most people don't have the time and resources to do or read all the literature that is regularly put out by the scientific community. Most people will rely upon what science says; they place their faith in the scientist, And they do so based upon the data they have that science is right or wrong most of the time. Likewise, they base their faith in a certain god based upon the same data, whether in their experience it is the right decision or not.'
And while atheist will point to "errors" and bad morals by God, like the "approval" of slavery and the killing of children (they tend to take those out of context and view it from their secular world view and deem them "bad"). they totally ignore the opposite evidence that helps to verify it: That despite the "errors" they note, that the Bible, written by many people over many thousands of years has a consistent message: that despite our sin and fall from grace, we can be saved by Him through faith in Christ, who conquered death through death.
They would claim, in that regard, that to have faith in a God who feels it necessary to kill his son to atone for humanity's sins to be crazy. Of course, they tend to go with what they were taught in whatever church they grew up in, and not too many teach the more rational version of atonement being that due to the fall, we cannot stand in God's presence without experiencing Hell, That's why we can't see him directly. So, God sent his son in order to heal us of our fallen condition by defeating death, our sickness, through dying, going to Hades, and breaking down its gates since death could not hold the giver of life.
While I'm sure an atheist would still find problems with that explanation, it does address their concerns with the satisfaction theory, and additionally it has the benefit of being the original understanding of what the atonement is about.
Now, one's acceptance of the above would in part depend upon what you place your faith in. A) Me, and all those who have taught the same down through history, B) One's self, in your own logic and understanding, partial though it may be. Or you may place your faith in a certain group of scientist you admire, so if they suggest that a certain thing has been proven to be true, you'll tend to believe them before you've researched it or read all the papers on it, because you have faith that they have diligently done that work and have adequately assessed the conclusions. Why? Because you have experienced that in the past.
In other words, faith doesn't happen in a vacuum. It has reasons and experience of the person that causes them to have faith. This is why Christianity is often referred to as The Faith. Because it is placing our faith in Jesus Christ, in God. However misplaced a particular person may feel that faith is placed by someone, it doesn't happen apart from reason. It isn't an evidence from nothing.
Christianity isn't believed by faith in a something like the Bible, or by faith in a particular Church, rather it is because we have faith in a person, Jesus Christ, that what he says is true, that we believe things like the Bible. It's because we have faith in the person of Jesus Christ, that we believe it when He says that He is the Son of God.
That is what faith really is. Faith in the person of Jesus Christ: God. Everything else flows from that faith. Even as it does with the atheist.
