Do I have to switch my brain off to be a Christian?

According to the Richard Dawkins, a leading figure among the New Atheists, he writes that ‘[religious] faith is blind trust in the teeth of all the evidence’ and that as a result believing in Jesus Christ is about as plausible as believing in ‘Santa Claus or the fairies at the bottom of your garden’. He would say that to be a modern thinking person and a follower of Jesus are incongruous! I DON’T AGREE! More importantly, neither does God! In fact, failing to take Jesus seriously based on the Gospels would be entirely sub-intellectual!