sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Look at Purex's post. It dovetails with my statement that "faith is a spiritual construct." We have a spiritual need for "more." Faith is what defines that and helps us to understand our spiritual nature.
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What Is Good about Faith?
- Thread starter Magic Man
- Start date
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
OK, maybe it would help if you tell me your definition of "faith". What I mean by the word is "believing something with no evidence supporting it". To me, believing that we're all connected and that there are things you should do and things you shouldn't doesn't need faith. But I hear people all the time promoting faith as such a good thing in and of itself. I'm trying to make a distinction between "faith" and "belief in God". I'm not using them interchangeably for these purposes.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
This is an impossible question because it is asked from a pov that won't accept the evidence of those to whom it is addressed.
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
This is an impossible question because it is asked from a pov that won't accept the evidence of those to whom it is addressed.
No, I mean many people find it good to believe certain things specifically when they don't have any evidence. They feel it's good to just believe anyway. That's what I'm wondering about.
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
I don't think most of the "faithful" would define "faith" as "belief w/o evidence.
You're almost setting up a straw man here.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
ah. Doesn't apply to me so I can't answer.
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
No, that's why I'm being specific. It's not so much a strawman because many people who believe, would define it that way. I constantly hear people say things like "Well, you just have to have faith", among many other things.
Ringer
Jar of Clay
I agree that I don't believe many define faith in this way. I certainly don't have faith in God because I never saw any evidence of God's existence. I believe faith may be considered a virtue because, well, it's a hard struggle and something people battle with most days of their lives. It requires constant reinforcement, an intellectual struggle, and will give you almost certain ridicule at some point in your life. As I've said in previous threads, faith is holding onto to something your reason has already accepted despite your changing moods. Your reason would not have accepted this in the first place unless you had, what you thought, was good evidence.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
It protects us from being robbed, murdered, and our wives from being coveted, by those who believe morality only comes from religion.
jtartar
Well-Known Member
Mball,
We can read a very good reason for having faith at Heb 11:1-3,6.
You are very wrong when you say there is no evidence for faith in God's word. If you understand what God is telling man, and what He has done already, what He has purposed to do in the near future, you would have complete faith in His word. Almo9st one third of the Bible is prophecy. Every prophecy of God's has come true. Some of these prophecies are very longrange. Just as His other prophecies have come true we can be certain that these other ones will also.
Remember, Heb 11:1 says that faith is the ASSURED EXPECTATION of things. True Christians have complete faith in all that God's word says.
slave2six
Substitious
That's hardly fair. This is a debate forum after all.....
TheKnight
Guardian of Life
Well yes, but if the topic is "If you believe in X then please answer this question" then it would make no sense for someone who doesn't believe in X to try and answer the question. You could, but it wouldn't be the answer that the questioner is looking for.
Diederick
Active Member
The positive thing about faith is that it comforts people, regardless of being true or not. And in that is also its problem, if people get too comfortable, they don't let go so easily - not even if there are better alternatives available, which are actually true!
Wishful thinking, might be the better word for it.
Wishful thinking, might be the better word for it.
cardero
Citizen Mod
What Is Good about Faith?
People rely on hope and faith just for the sake of relying on hope and faith. The only TRUE usage of these two words is that they make great names to give your children. That's about it. No entity has ever given ME reason why these words should hold TRUTH in any context for the development of their BEing.
HELLO IT’S ME: An Interview With GOD
Chapter: Belief, Faith, Hope And Joy
Pg: 168
I would also like to add that faith is an effective literary device to drive a story forward.
People rely on hope and faith just for the sake of relying on hope and faith. The only TRUE usage of these two words is that they make great names to give your children. That's about it. No entity has ever given ME reason why these words should hold TRUTH in any context for the development of their BEing.
HELLO IT’S ME: An Interview With GOD
Chapter: Belief, Faith, Hope And Joy
Pg: 168
I would also like to add that faith is an effective literary device to drive a story forward.
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slave2six
Substitious
It also has crippling effects in that many people (I can name twenty of my acquaintances off the top of my head who fit the bill) live in denial of facts (e.g. something in their life sucks) and say "God will see me through" rather than getting off their bums and doing those things that need to be done to make their own lives better.
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
What does that have to do with anything? I want to know why people think faith is good, which means that people who don't think faith is good can't really answe the question, and I don't want people coming in and saying "faith is destructive or dangerous" or something like that. Threads are directed at certain groups all the time.
For what it's worth, from the OED:
I. Belief, trust, confidence.
1. a. Confidence, reliance, trust (in the ability, goodness, etc., of a person; in the efficacy or worth of a thing; or in the truth of a statement or doctrine).
1. a. Confidence, reliance, trust (in the ability, goodness, etc., of a person; in the efficacy or worth of a thing; or in the truth of a statement or doctrine).
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Another postitive thing about faith is that it tries us, as well as comforts us.
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
I know there are many definitions, or variations on the definition of faith. That's why I specified the one I was talking about.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Sadly, this tactic doesn't work too well on RF. Being clear and specific up front seems to be the most efficient way of drawing obfuscaters out of their holes.