Have you ever heard Atheists define faith this way: “I regard faith as religious belief which is held without evidence. If someone thinks that a bus will arrive on time per its schedule, then that person has trust or confidence, not faith.”
It is a false dichotomy of course. One which many thoughtful Christians would object to as unscriptural, misleading, even disingenuous. But it is so well entrenched within the Atheist community that I’m starting to feel attempts to expand their linguistic awareness are futile.
Maybe a better approach would be to affirm, “Well if that is your definition of faith, then the good news is faith is not necessary for living the Christian life … only trust and confidence are.” For the essential issue is not whether Reality is real or not, but whether it is blind, pitiless and indifferent or not. I just happen to have confidence, given my life experience and the accounts of trustworthy witnesses, that Reality really, really cares.
Curious Christian 
This is lovely. But I’m a wannabe-believer, yet the historical evidence is so … sketchy that I just go round in circles over which side of the argument that I’m on. I find it impossible to commit to Christianity for that reason…
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Tim, thanks. Let me affirm that questioning is essential for spiritual growth. But also, having gone through this myself, let me suggest it is important to differentiate between issues of peripheral importance, moderate importance and central importance when grappling with the historical questions, or indeed any questions. Think of a bullseye with multiple rings around it. I find it most helpful to focus on the most central questions.
Consider, for example, the virgin birth. It is mentioned in only 2 out of the 4 gospels and no where else in scripture. I am of the view that this is not beyond God’s power, however, I am also of the view it is a secondary issue given the relative lack of attention it is given in the New Testament. So, of moderate importance, but not central.
Six days of creation, well that gets mentioned even less. So, of peripheral importance in my view.
On the importance of trusting God and loving others, however, this gets mentioned in just about every book of the New Testament, often multiple times. It is obviously central. Now, is it historically trustworthy that this is what Jesus and the apostles taught? That is where I would say focus your questions first.
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