The Question of Faith (reject, Earth, beliefs, minority, theist)

[Ardhanariswar]

"Cancer, fetal harlequin syndrome, multiple sclerosis...what were you saying about goodness again?"

cerid, we've already been through this in the thread, the good the bad the blamed.
we are responsible for our own karma, deal with it. we do not whine or blame God or satan. that is foolish thinking.


a good saying i like is this. it cuts out all debate and simplifies it all.

for true believers, no proof is necessary, for skeptics, no proof is enough.

no matter how much you debate, things will remain the same. unless you go through some radical conversion...

but you all can reach salvation nevertheless.

[Lightkeeper]

You use faith on a daily basis. You have to have faith that when you get into a car to go someplace you will get their. You have to have faith that your toaster will work. You have to have faith that your food is healthy, and on and on.

[Ronald]

Originally Posted by Lightkeeper

You use faith on a daily basis. You have to have faith that when you get into a car to go someplace you will get their. You have to have faith that your toaster will work. You have to have faith that your food is healthy, and on and on.

This is expectation! I expect those things will happen, all the while knowing and wondering when will this break or that hamburger poison me.

Faith on the other hand is complete trust. A knowing, so to speak! No doubt.

[Lightkeeper]

According to Webster Collegiate Dictionary, one definition of faith is "firm belief in something for which there is not proof." A synonym for faith is hopefulness.

[Ronald]

There you Go!

[true blood]

Faith is a present persuasion. Hope, however, pertains to future.

[Ceridwen018]

Well then, I suppose we need to come up with a word besides 'faith' to describe what you have that your food is healthy.

[Ronald]

Originally Posted by Ceridwen018

Well then, I suppose we need to come up with a word besides 'faith' to describe what you have that your food is healthy.

I hope the food supply is safe.
I desire a safe food source.
Could be many more. If you are invincable, I suppose you could still use faith.
I have only suffered with food poisioning a few dozen times. Doesn't instill faith in me. Bon appitit.

[Hope]

I agree with HelpMe--we cannot prove that God is an invention of man. I believe that if any of us had lived among the Israelites a few thousand years ago and seen all the miraculous things they did, we would be going, Whoa, whether I want to believe there is a God or not, there is no other explanation for what I am seeing! Jesus Himself said that many will be asking and seeking for signs (to prove that He is real), but that they will not see the signs they want. God cares more about the condition of our hearts, than about proving Himself to us through 'signs.' If we are determined not to believe, then it won't matter how many proofs He offers us. We would just find a way to explain away every sign or proof He gives us. That is why faith is so important to God. From my own personal experience, I can say that I believe He is real, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He did not 'appear' to me in any vision, or stand in front of me in human form so that I could say, 'Aha, now I can prove scientifically that God is a real, living being!' But I have had too many experiences that cannot be explained ( and heard of others through other people I trust ), except by the existence of a loving, thinking, living supreme Being bigger and more awesome than anything I am capable of imagining. So I have to disagree with iwilliam in his statement that faith is ignorance in the purest form. Having faith simply requires being willing to let go of our presuppositions of what God should be like, and being willing to say, you know what, perhaps I shouldn't rely totally on everything that I can see, hear, taste, smell, etc., to define 'reality' to me--maybe there is another whole realm, or dimension, out there, that is just as real as this one, maybe more real, only I have been too blind to see it before, because I was looking for it in all the wrong places.

[Hope]

If anyone has seen 'The Matrix'--one of my favorite movies, actually--maybe that will help a little in understanding faith. That movie, though not 'Christian', has wonderful spiritual parallels and analogies.