Which is more important belief, knowledge or experience?

[dbakerman76]

In your own religious practice which is more important?

Belief

Knowledge

Experience

 

[Jaymes]

Experience, easily. Believing and simply knowing don't come close to actually experiencing something.

 

[Random]

All three in equal measure would be better than best! Why wasn't there an option for all three? Because everyone would have voted all three? I voted "knowlege" because the other two don't work so well without it.

 

[Sunstone]

When it comes to religion, I think experience is more important than the other two because I think some sort of experience is more often than not the proper goal of religious practice.

 

[ayani]

in my faith, it is belief that is central.

from belief springs a new way of seeing the world, and a deeper experience of it. from belief springs devotion, humility, and a desire to right one's wrongs.

to grow in belief / faith is, for me, to also grow in knowledge.

 

[Fluffy]

Knowledge is most important. Belief is identical to experience with regards to religious practice (the two are inseperable) and both would overwritten by knowledge.

On a practical level, belief and experience are more important since I am not in possession of any knowledge.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Knowledge, because without it, you don't know what you experience, nor do you have as strong of a beliefe.

 

[Booko]

The first 3 are all important, so I voted:

 

[Booko]

Knowledge, because without it, you don't know what you experience, nor do you have as strong of a beliefe.

But doesn't knowledge sometimes come from experience?

What about someone who has knowledge, but no experience to back it up?

I could ask the same questions with belief instead of, I suppose. That's why I went for all 3, as they seem inextricably intertwined.

And so I voted for:

 

[gnostic]

In regarding to religion? Then, I would have chosen all 3 too.

Believing is perhaps the easiest of the lot...though it may not seem that way. Knowledge and experience are harder to come by.

The simplest of people can believe in whatever is put forward to them...esp if they had grown up in a family that followed this religion for generation. But often I find that even the people who believe in one religion or another, doesn't necessary mean that they would understand the knowledge inside of that religion.

So I without the choice of choosing "all three", I would have to choose

Hey! That's a chicken, not a duckie.

I'd choose wl:

That's not a duckie too. Where did you get the duck from Booko?

 

[lilithu]

In your own religious practice which is more important?

Belief

Knowledge

Experience

Now, look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea; "this is our teacher'. But, O Kalamas, when you know for youselves that certain things are unwholesome (akusala), and wrong, and bad, then give them up ... And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome (kusala) and good, then accept them and abide by them.
- The Buddha

The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary, between poets like Herbert, and poets like Pope, between philosophers like Spinoza, Kant, and Coleridge, and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Mackintosh, and Stewart, between men of the world, who are reckoned accomplished talkers, and here and there a fervent mystic, prophesying, half insane under the infinitude of his thought, is, that one class speak from within, or from experience, as parties and possessors of the fact; and the other class, from without, as spectators merely, or perhaps as acquainted with the fact on the evidence of third persons. It is of no use to preach to me from without. I can do that too easily myself. Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree that transcends all others.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Belief.

 

[Tigress]

Experience...and the duckies!

 

[lilithu]

lol, look how all the UUs voted.

 

[Kcnorwood]

I’d have to say believe. It can help you though anything & with it comes knowledge over time,
But the duckies are cute!

 

[Spirit Channeller]

I vote experience.
Blind faith may be good enough for some, and many may follow the flock like a bunch of lambs but there is nothing better than to have faith and follow the teachings of others but if along the way you acquire new knowledge that tells you something different then I believe you need to rethink things and try to share your new knowledge with others.
But sometimes when you acquire that knowledge through parananormal experiences like Jesus and the other channellers from that time and your knowledge is in conflict with some of the things written back then well then you are going to have a lot of trouble sharing your new found knowledge with others because some of them are too set in their ways and too brainwashed by earlier writers to keep an open mind as to new learnings by current searchers of the truth.

 

[seed757]

Knowledge hands down. Simply because you have to know what is proper to believe as well as know if your experience is legitimate.

Knowledge is the measuring stick and the validator of the other two. Without knowledge you truly don't have either. IMO.

 

[Tigress]

Experience is the primary precursor to knowledge, as it is to wisdom.--Do you not believe in God because you have experienced God? Does your knowledge of him not also come from said experience, and/or the experience(s) of those before you?

 

[darkpenguin]

i don't understand why people who are religiously inclined feel the need to believe, if there was a god i'm sure they would wonder why people would rather believe than have an idea about something, belief is a very dangerous thing when it comes to religion, an idea about religion can be changed when it's proved to be wrong whereas a belief is harder to change even when it's proven to be wrong often with disasterous concequences!if people want to belive in religion then why not just have an idea about it, it makes sense!also i struggle to see why some people are religious sometimes, people tend to treat their respective religions as a burden rather than a blessing, again thats where the idea thing comes in!

 

[lilithu]

i don't understand why people who are religiously inclined feel the need to believe, if there was a god i'm sure they would wonder why people would rather believe than have an idea about something, belief is a very dangerous thing when it comes to religion, an idea about religion can be changed when it's proved to be wrong whereas a belief is harder to change even when it's proven to be wrong often with disasterous concequences!if people want to belive in religion then why not just have an idea about it, it makes sense!also i struggle to see why some people are religious sometimes, people tend to treat their respective religions as a burden rather than a blessing, again thats where the idea thing comes in!

Would it be possible for you to explain why you chose knowledge rather than to criticise those who chose belief?

Granted this is a debate forum, but there are plenty of other threads for you to put down the choices of others. There are so few threads where we can lift up our own choices. The two are not the same.