Another way to put this is that if we cannot believe that our faith is true, it cannot integrate our lives. We can pretend to believe certain things, but belief cannot be forced. The problem arises when the contents of our faith are in conflict with other things we believe. It is possible, at least for a time, to put the different forms of believe in separate compartments. Then our faith ceases to be a unifying factor for us. We hold it only as a fragment.
When our faith is challenged by any aspect of our experience, we have to think it through. Either we will succeed in integrating the new experience into our overall faith perspective or our faith will be weakened, perhaps even abandoned altogether. Suppose we gain new scientific information that challenges long-held beliefs. If the scientific information is convincing, then we will have to struggle to understand a new, perhaps deeper level of understanding our faith. This does not have to be a threat of faith. Indeed, faith can be strengthened, not weakened, by the challenge. It will certainly be tested. Similarly, a formative, deeply emotional religious experience, or a sudden loss of relationship can trigger questions about the loving nature of God. These, too, must be integrated into the whole life.
Some of the most challenging problems center on our reverence for and use of the Bible. If the impression is left that a good Christian will accept everything in the Bible as factually true, then how is one to deal with the inconsistencies and the direct conflicts with well-known truths about the natural world? How can the stories of creation, taken literally, be squared with the incontestable evidence of science with which they are in conflict?
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