Faith is a fascinating thing. We all have it, to some degree, though many choose to pretend they don't.
Most of us probably have faith that the sun will, in fact, rise each morning, marking the dawn of a new day. We probably have faith that we will be able to rise the next morning in pretty much the same condition as when we went to sleep. And the list goes on and on, little things we do each day because we have faith we can or faith they will happen.
Why do we have faith in those things? Because we have witnessed them happening in the past. We have proof that they can, and will, occur. But when we begin to talk about faith in a supreme being, things become much more sticky. Right?
I'm not too sure about that.
Proof seems to be the central idea for those who do and don't have faith in a god. Those with faith often claim they have proof that He (she or it, as you may) exists, while those without faith ask, and even demand, for proof. That is what they are waiting for: proof.
But would proof really make a difference? Growing up I was warned countless times not to touch the stove. I was told it was hot, witnessed things cooking (and even burning) on the stove. What more proof could I have asked for? But was that sufficient? Of course not. Only once I touched the hot stove and burned myself did I really appreciate and understand the concept of a hot stove. And I can guarantee I am not the only one who has had to learn this way either.
We don't really appreciate gravity until we are really victims of it. How's the water? we ask, only to ignore the answer and test if for ourselves. And while I have been a witness and participant in the birth of numerous children, and have ample proof of the pain it causes, do I really know and understand that pain? Having not experienced it, the answer is resoundingly negative.
So why the special treatment to things spiritual? If in the physical world we rarely truly believe and understand until we experience something for ourselves, why should the spiritual be different? Those who demand proof do so with empty words, knowing full well there will be none, but also knowing that if any was offered they will refute it because they haven't experienced it themselves.
If video, photos, and audio recordings aren't enough to convince a significant number of the population that man actually has walked on the moon, what evidence could be offered to prove the existence of a god? Nothing will ever suffice, which is likely the very reason it is so frequently demanded. Because there is no external proof that will ever amount to anything.
In spiritual matters experience is the only true teacher. As a missionary I taught hundreds of people about the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5: 22-23). I shared my experiences in which I have, through exercise of faith, received a spiritual witness to the truth of a principle. I have borne witness to what I have discovered through my own study, meditation and prayer. But that can serve as nothing more than a means to encourage others to do the same. Only once they chose to study, read, meditate, and pray did they come to understand what I had so tirelessly explained.
And so this paradigm of faith extends as much (if not more so) to the spiritual as it does to the physical. Throughout our lives we test the physical world with our own senses, discovering for ourselves what truth there may be. The smell of a flower, the taste of salt, the touch of a newborn's skin, all can only be understood by experience. The world's foremost expert on scent could never do, in a hundred years, what can be done with one simple, single sniff of a rose bud. Likewise, reams of historic evidence, personal accounts, and even a note, signed, sealed and deliver by the hand of God Himself mean nothing in the absence of personal experience.
The burden of proof rests neither on the believers (to prove a god does exist) nor on the unbelievers (to prove a god does not exist). Rather, the burden of proof rests on each of us to take that path of discovery for ourselves. And neither I, nor anyone else, can tell you what you should find on that path. We can only bear witness to what we have found walking our own.