Faith is belief without evidence.
That is believing something despite not having any proof. Religious faith is only one type of faith, it can be applied to things such as science, morals, philosophy and many more things.
Children are being taught that faith is a GOOD thing. Not only a good thing but the HIGHEST virtue.
Anyone who cannot see a problem here is clearly insane.
This is a fairly common statement. The "believing something despite not having any proof" is generally the feel that people have with what faith means. I have always understood faith to mean trust. When people are told to have faith in Jesus/God/your friend they are to trust in him. Trusting someone or something shouldn't be done without any proof, that would be "clearly insane". You wouldn't trust (or have faith in) a random guy off the street to baby sit your children, you would trust (or have faith in) someone you know to be reliable and have a history with. You might not trust a 19 year old car with a broken radiator to get you from Sydney to Canberra and back again on a hot summer day. Based off the evidence and using your reason you might consider another travelling option.
I just don't understand why people who make the above quote make the assumption that faith is based off no evidence. I would say "science, morals, philosophy and many more things" do come from reason and evidence with trust in both. Granted that they are open to rejection due to faulty assumptions or new evidence, but the sciences, people's behaviour and philosophy are at leased based off something.
I'm not saying that you don't need faith to follow Jesus, because even if someone was raised form the dead, some people still would not be convinced. But I just don't see how people can discredit historical writings as an absence of evidence.
Hi &, interesting post, thanks for putting it up. I think that the mainstream conception of faith is 'something that is completely unfounded and irrational'. If this were the case, then I would agree that to have faith is insane. But faith isn't like that at all. Faith doesn't have all the answers, but this doesn't make it irrational. I have faith that we will be friends tomorrow, and into the future. I don't know what the future will bring, but I know you, and this is the basis for my faith. Similarly, whilst I don't know what the future will bring, I have relationship with my God and Saviour, and this gives me confidence in the future.
ReplyDelete"Faith doesn't have all the answers, but this doesn't make it irrational."
ReplyDeleteFaith can be either rational or irrational, depending on whether that belief is based on logic and evidence or on superstition.
Reading something in a book, or having been told something by your elders does not make a belief true. Otherwise we would have "faith" that vampires and the Easter bunny are real.
Rational people have the ability to distinguish between myth and reality. Irrational people believe in myth despite all the scientific evidence to the contrary, and will even create their own myths to support their irrational beliefs, like Creationism.
"I have faith that we will be friends tomorrow, and into the future. I don't know what the future will bring, but I know you, and this is the basis for my faith."
Knowing someone and assuming that you will become friends eventually is a faith that is based on logic and evidence of observed compatibility.
This would be considered to be rational faith.
However, having faith that some mythical character that you read about in a book will be your friend, is definitely irrational.