Abstract
Religious faith, primarily in the active sense of believing, is both a gift and a blessing from God, and a "sure knowledge" of certain basic and deepest realities. In faith we know who God is. We know that we are fallen, but redeemed creatures. We and all other creatures are part of God's good creation, which though fallen, is being redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ. Thus we may have a deep trust and quiet confidence in the "givenness" of God's initial address to us in his revelation in the Scriptures and creation. God's address invites us to patiently listen with bated breath. This address or promise elicits a posture of receptivity, of listening, rather than first (subjectively) seeing. If God's revelation is primary (original), it should animate our faith response and allow scientific practice to retain its relative, limited, but frequently necessary and fascinating, place in our lives.