Properly understood, faith is the humble acknowledgment that we do not know everything about anything. Or, to put it more plainly, faith is a rational inference (or a “belief”), drawn from a long history of prior human experience, which dictates that there is always more for us to learn on any given subject. Therefore, the only proper object of true faith, the only thing that one can ever properly have “faith in,” is the great unknown: we know there is more we do not know. It should go without saying that what is known requires no faith, and what is subject to faith is not known.

Thus, true faith, or knowing that you do not know, is the beginning of all wisdom. It is the very source of curiosity, inquiry, ingenuity, science and enlightenment. It is the reasoned conviction that there is more to the world than meets the eye, and that we are capable of understanding it. True faith is rational faith, questioning faith, the faith of Socrates who always delved deeper for answers, and the faith of scientists and philosophers who do the same today. Such faith compels the rational mind to hypothesize explanations for phenomena, and then test such hypotheses by experimentation and prudent observation. It gives us the confidence to discard or reshape those hypotheses which don’t withstand scrutiny, and to make solid theories of those that do.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1