Do We Find Faith/Religion Or Does It Find Us?

[ChristineES]

I have said in the past that I did not decide to be a theist, I just one day was one, after being an agnostic (or ignostic, which is a better term for what I was) for most of my life. I went from not ever thinking about God to wondering and seeking about God to being a theist.

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

 

[Quagmire]

I would guess that in most cases it's a two-way street.

 

[Desert Snake]

Either, or, or both.

 

[viole]

I have said in the past that I did not decide to be a theist, I just one day was one, after being an agnostic (or ignostic, which is a better term for what I was) for most of my life. I went from not ever thinking about God to wondering and seeking about God to being a theist.

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

If Christianity was true, then we find faith. Because if faith finds us I could still use this as an excuse at the pearly gates: sorry, faith did not find me, not my fault.

This also seems to be corroborated by the fact that if faith finds us, it is not clear why it finds people more frequently in certain parts of the world and not others. For instance, it is more likely for faith to find someone in Alabama than in Yemen, and faith seems to have missed to find all people living in, say, pre-columbian America, for some reason.

So, the logical conclusion is that we find faith, and that happens only when we already heard about that faith because it is already existing in our cultural environment.

The next logical conclusion of why we tend to find the faith of our environment is obvious.

Ciao

- viole

 

[sandandfoam]

I feel like things found me.

 

[Desert Snake]

.........

 

[Desert Snake]

This also seems to be corroborated by the fact that if faith finds us, it is not clear why it finds people more frequently in certain parts of the world and not others. For instance, it is more likely for faith to find someone in Alabama than in Yemen, and faith seems to have missed to find all people living in, say, pre-columbian America, for some reason.

Seems pretty simple to answer this. It's because you can set yourself up for whatever might inspire you, but set yourself up with some 'defense' of atheism.

So, the logical conclusion is that we find faith, and that happens only when we already heard about that faith because it is already existing in our cultural environment

.

Is it? That seems counter-intuitive, considering how many people change faiths.

[/QUOTE]

 

[StarryNightshade]

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

I think it's a bit of both.

We may go out to find a faith/path, but one will ultimately choose us.

 

[viole]

Seems pretty simple to answer this. It's because you can set yourself up for whatever might inspire you, but set yourself up with some 'defense' of atheism.

I am not sure I understand this. How does that explain that what inspires you is somewhat external and not subjective? After all, I am sure that pre-christian cultures also had individuals who set up themselves for something that might expire them, so it is not clear why we have no evidence of Jesus having inspired them.

Is it? That seems counter-intuitive, considering how many people change faiths.

Yes, but they do not appear to be too many. Statistically, it is obvious that someone growing up in the Bible Belt will have many more odds to be inspired by Christianity, then someone growing up in Iran. If I had to bet the future religion of many of those individuals I would become rich just by betting.

So, I think it is self evident that we find faith and not the other way round.

Ciao

- viole

 

[LuisDantas]

The way I see it, being a theist, animist, deist, pantheism, panentheism, atheist or even agnostic is to some extent a vocation, somewhat modified by learning and social expectations. Some people are simply naturally more inclined to take one of those stances as opposed to others. It may well me possible to identify reasons (for instance, there seems to be something to the notion that atheism is somewhat enabled by parent issues), but for the most part it is all speculative at this point.

Religions proper, though, tend to be learned, at least initially. It is of course possible and desirable to develop one's own personal path (or Dharma, as I prefer to call it) from what one learns, but that is not always done (and when it is, it is not always consciously).

 

[Erebus]

I have said in the past that I did not decide to be a theist, I just one day was one, after being an agnostic (or ignostic, which is a better term for what I was) for most of my life. I went from not ever thinking about God to wondering and seeking about God to being a theist.

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

A bit of both I guess. I do think that people are roughly predisposed towards either Theism or Atheism and that this sets the foundation for our approach to religion. After that it's a combination of our life experiences, research and personalities.

I found that my own Atheism didn't last, I suppose given some of the things I've experienced coupled with my own predisposition towards Theism it was somewhat inevitable that I'd eventually find a Theistic religion. In addition my personality has always leaned towards the dark, the macabre and dissidence. Finally I've always been fascinated by folklore and the Occult, which led to me researching some of the lesser known religions. Considering this combination it seems natural that I'd be more drawn to something along the lines of Demonolatry than to Christianity or Islam.

So I found the religion on my own steam, but was always going to find something similar anyway given my predisposition.

 

[Penumbra]

I have said in the past that I did not decide to be a theist, I just one day was one, after being an agnostic (or ignostic, which is a better term for what I was) for most of my life. I went from not ever thinking about God to wondering and seeking about God to being a theist.

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

I started out as an agnostic theist and intended to go in the direction of further religiosity and after researching a lot to do that, I quickly ended up going in the opposite direction towards non-theism, which was not my original intention. Then for the next decade and counting I've been more or less a non-theist with increasing disinterest in the subject.

So my vote is going to go with religion chooses people. But eventually it just gets down to the question of whether free will exists and if it's even a coherent concept to begin with.

Where we are born, what our parents believe, who we meet in life, what books we happen to come across, all play a role in what our worldview ends up being. Or, two people can read the same scripture, and one thinks it's the most beautiful and true thing she ever read, and someone else can think it's mundane or unimpressive or clearly untrue, and I don't think there's a whole lot of choice involved. It's like willing yourself to try to not like your favorite movie anymore, or willing yourself to begin liking a movie that you really don't like.

 

[Revoltingest]

I have said in the past that I did not decide to be a theist, I just one day was one, after being an agnostic (or ignostic, which is a better term for what I was) for most of my life. I went from not ever thinking about God to wondering and seeking about God to being a theist.

So what do you believe: Do we find faith or does faith find us?

I had my orientation all along.
No decision at all.
I neither chose it, nor did it choose me.
We're just a match made in Heaven.

 

[ChristineES]

I became a theist before I became a Christian; you'd have thought it would have been at the same time, but it wasn't. I never asked anyone if they became a theist at the same time as they found religion or if they found one or the other first.