“They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.” (Page 50, Big Book)
I’m asked to believe that God has saved Marjorie not merely by observing that she used to be a terrible drunk and is now sober and inferring the accessing of a Higher Power from these two facts.
I’m asked to believe that God has done so by hearing Marjorie report on her own experience. The human example thus provides a greater body of evidence than chemists enjoy when producing chemical reactions: chemicals can’t talk, but people can.
What three things am I asked to believe? Well, nothing very abstract and theological. I’m asked to believe:
(1) God (who is good and powerful) exists
(2) God is accessible
(3) If I adopt an attitude (of surrender) and take certain actions (the Steps), my problems will be solved.
That’s belief, and one arrives at those principles inductively from the facts, being the facts of what has happened to others, as observed and as reported.
Belief is thus rational and certainly not blind: quite the reverse.
What is faith?
Faith is the faculty that allows one to muscle through fear based on belief.
I’m told by the diving instructor that, if I jump off the diving board, even if I muff the manoeuvre entirely, whilst I might feel a sharp smack, I cannot possibly hurt myself. Faith is the ability to dive.