• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Faith Isn't Knowledge...Nor Should It Be

Looncall

Well-Known Member
Still not the same truth. Real truth comes from being and not doing.Truth from someone trying to be correct is right or wrong from someone who is dictated by their thoughts.
Real truth can only be found when someone learns to dictate their thoughts.

Please define your terms. This comes across as meaningless.
 

Walkntune

Well-Known Member
Please define your terms. This comes across as meaningless.
I will try to in simple terms or from a simple example.You are not your thoughts.Thoughts seek out what is right or wrong or what is correct or not correct in order to control and fix problems or in order to just maintain control. It creates a false self or an ego.
If you can quiet your thoughts then you you discover the real you and the truth.The real truth only exists in the here and now and from your beingness.It does not exist in thoughts that are from the past and concerns of the future.They are not real and don't even exist and therefore no truth can be found in them but only what we percieve to be right and wrong or correct and not correct.
Eample
Most of the time pain is just a memory that we are holding on to. It does not exist anymore but we still hold on to it in thought and so therefore we can still feel it.We hold on to the pain and try and find a solution to fix it in our thoughts.We only seek right or wrong in thoughts to find justification to release the pain.You can let it go anytime you choose.In this way all of reality is distorted by trying to seek truth in thoughts as truth is only found in "beingness"meaning the here and now.Truth is you could have let go of the pain from the very beginning without the suffering and without trying to seek right or wrong in the thoughts for justification to let it go.For many this is what faith does.
 
Last edited:

Copernicus

Industrial Strength Linguist
You seem wise and intelligent!
icon7.gif
It is not wise to confuse agreement with wisdom. :)

Knowledge is a tricky thing, because most of what we "know" is really just what we believe to be true to the "best of our knowledge". Beliefs shift around a lot, especially as we gain new experiences that contradict expectations. That is completely natural. The ability to learn is key to our survival, but religious faith strives to isolate some beliefs from the scrutiny that they deserve.

Faith denies both experience and the ability to learn from failed expectations. Religion extolls faith, because religion itself is not grounded in direct experiences. It is grounded in trust of things that other people say--basically hearsay. And when it appears to fail our expectations--say when a devout believer suffers bad fortune--faith prevents one from arriving at new insights as to how nature really works. Thus, we still have people whose faith leads them to see God's wrath in hurricanes and earthquakes, natural events that have no direct cause in human obedience or disobedience. We also have people who put more faith in God to cure an illness than proven medical science, a delusion that can too often lead to death or permanent injury. Religious faith is difficult to maintain, and that is why it requires indoctrination from an early age and extraordinary measures to isolate it from our wiser thought processes.
 
Last edited:

waitasec

Veteran Member
Everywhere in the three big monotheistic traditions the importance of faith is extolled. The idea that, by believing in something that I cannot possibly prove, I undergo a transformative experience by that very thing, is a staple of Christianity in particular. Jesus is constantly lamenting that his disciples don't fully believe or understand the scope of His power and condemns those who blatantly refuse to believe without evidence.

which begs the question, why is it so important to understand the scope of his power? is jesus insecure?

it's like a husband threatening his sickly wife, if she were to divorce him she will no longer be covered through his insurance...
the understanding is knowing the husband has the power to provider her coverage
the insecurity is why would you threaten someone you supposedly love?
 

Walkntune

Well-Known Member
Let me answer you with some of your own quote.
=Copernicus;2648190]It is not wise to confuse agreement with wisdom. :)
Knowledge is a tricky thing, because most of what we "know" is really just what we believe to be true to the "best of our knowledge".
Perhaps I replied to her not because she agreed with me but because she understood the different points of view.


Beliefs shift around a lot, especially as we gain new experiences that contradict expectations. That is completely natural. The ability to learn is key to our survival,

Survival from what? Ourselves?It seems mans knowledge can be very detrimental to the planet and environment.



but religious faith strives to isolate some beliefs from the scrutiny that they deserve.
Faith is faith. Religion is just one place people place it.Its not like you just choose to have it. You are born with it.It is knowledge that increases fear.You can dangle a baby off of a high rise building and it would just look at you and giggle.It has to learn to fear.
Faith denies both experience and the ability to learn from failed expectations.
Without faith you just assume that which is in your intellect is true. Clearly from your fist statement that isn't so.


Religion extolls faith, because religion itself is not grounded in direct experiences. It is grounded in trust of things

If those who placed their faith in religion did not see that which they placed their faith in manifest then they would not continue.Through experience the faith grows.



And when it appears to fail our expectations--say when a devout believer suffers bad fortune--faith prevents one from arriving at new insights as to how nature really works.

Faith allows one to view nature and bad fortunes as it really is without trying to control or manipulate it.It keeps one from the state of denial.Like I said the intellect cannot be in truth but only in thoughts which become distorted in times of distress.

Thus, we still have people whose faith leads them to see God's wrath in hurricanes and earthquakes, natural events that have no direct cause in human obedience or disobedience. We also have people who put more faith in God to cure an illness than proven medical science, a delusion that can too often lead to death or permanent injury. Religious faith is difficult to maintain, and that is why it requires indoctrination from an early age and extraordinary measures to isolate it from our wiser thought processes
You can never do away with faith or indoctrinate people not to have it.Its a silly notion.Every breathe you take you rely on it to be there by faith.When faith is gone,so are you.
 

Photonic

Ad astra!
Let me answer you with some of your own quote.

Knowledge is a tricky thing, because most of what we "know" is really just what we believe to be true to the "best of our knowledge".
Perhaps I replied to her not because she agreed with me but because she understood the different points of view.




Survival from what? Ourselves?It seems mans knowledge can be very detrimental to the planet and environment.




Faith is faith. Religion is just one place people place it.Its not like you just choose to have it. You are born with it.It is knowledge that increases fear.You can dangle a baby off of a high rise building and it would just look at you and giggle.It has to learn to fear.

Without faith you just assume that which is in your intellect is true. Clearly from your fist statement that isn't so.




If those who placed their faith in religion did not see that which they placed their faith in manifest then they would not continue.Through experience the faith grows.





Faith allows one to view nature and bad fortunes as it really is without trying to control or manipulate it.It keeps one from the state of denial.Like I said the intellect cannot be in truth but only in thoughts which become distorted in times of distress.


You can never do away with faith or indoctrinate people not to have it.Its a silly notion.Every breathe you take you rely on it to be there by faith.When faith is gone,so are you.

Are you so desperate to classify everything outside of absolute knowledge as faith?
 

heretic

Heretic Knight
I think how deep is one's faith in a religion depends extremely on the proofs it had, there may be some who accept a faith without an evidence but sure it will not be in the same strength as this of who believe with evidences to their religion
I think people this time is more advanced mentally , and intangible evidences for religious facts is not acceptable as they were tens years ago, existence of God is one of the most hot debatable point since the beginning of humanity , understanding it differs according to the mental and spiritual maturity progress through the human history


God created man with many powers , the most important are the mental and the spiritual ones , and it will be wrong on people by God if he asked them to fulfill one and leaving the other. It's every individual right to build the sufficient knowledge that feed his/her faith .

I think for a religion to make people believe in it's proposed metaphysical concepts must build a level of trustiness , before asking them to believe.a level of trustiness is made through tangible , or scientific evidences, right explanations of natural laws and elements, when a level of trustiness is built it will be more acceptable to believe in religious explanation of metaphysical concepts

If Jesus came just to ask people to believe then there's no need for him , because to believe is an instinct and inner need , and we can see many religions and doctrines trying to build an image of God or the Devine being or at least to explain nature , but are they enough , are they true? How can I be sure if some religion is true or not ? Is the man really a messenger of God? is the proposed life style suits me?what about afterlife? A religion may be unable to answer such questions .

I don't agree we are people commanded to just believe , we have been made thinking beings and the normal way is to search , to know , to better believe

Yes it's more worthy to spend time to know better to increase my faith than justify my believes to others
 
Last edited:

Walkntune

Well-Known Member
Faith is trust, hope and belief in the goodness, trustworthiness or reliability of a person, concept or entity. It can also refer to beliefs that are not based on proof.
So if its outside of absolute knowledge or that which is based on proof,it must take faith.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
"Faith" isn't knowledge, it's a substitute for or a supplement to knowledge.

Given our nature we have to have an opinion about various things outside of or beyond the reach of our senses. That aspect of our psychological make up is what got us this far: our early ancestors lacked the sensory acuity of other predatory species: we couldn't tell what was beyond the next hill or behind the next bush, etc., via our sense of smell, sight, or hearing so we had to learn to think abstractly. Whereas a tiger would know by it's sense of smell that an antelope had passed by a trail, and when, and which direction it had been moving in, our ancestors would have to look for signs---tracks, turds, broken brush---and deduce all of the above, and make predictions (educated guesses) based on those signs and whatever they had learned from experience as to what those signs meant and what that particular animals habits were in order to determine where the antelope might be now.

Once we became civilized, and all of our physical needs became routinely secure for the immediate future, that part of our minds that goes looking for knowledge, experience, and assurances beyond it's immediate surroundings and circumstances was set free to explore the non-physical, theoretical realities: Philosophy, religion, the arts, the sciences.

On a more personal level, each of us is constantly trying to make predictions and assessments about things beyond our immediate perception, we can't help it.

Since it's almost impossible to be emotionally indifferent to this process, emotionally speaking that leaves us with two choices: hope or fear.

Faith is choosing hope. To borrow a quote I believe I saw Jayhawker Soule use once, "We pray that we might live by our hopes rather than our fears".

It makes perfect sense. Unless someone is unusually disciplined, they're going to have an emotional attachment to things beyond their perception and beyond their control. Given that, what the choice ultimately comes down to is faith or neurosis.
 
Top