Christian concept of "Faith" question

[Dagan]

Okay. Your life is on the line. Which are you choosing?

A) the seasoned, educated professional who believes in themselves without spiritual/religious beliefs ever getting in the way.

B) the seasoned, educated professional who believes their god has to and always does work through them like a vessel, and so that's why whatever results come to be.

We can obviously thank or be angry at either one per whatever the outcome they give you. I personally know who I'd choose and know exactly how I'm going to feel, though, especially in the case of professional B, should they have wound up with a horrible end result and then they just don't really worry about it because they just shrug it off as "it was god's will" or similar. I'm not going to be nice to some supposed professional who doesn't truly take accountability or responsibility for their actions.

 

[Fino]

It's nice that we seem to have more Christians on the forum. I felt like the only one for years. And it probably drives certain others on the forum bonkers, so that's a plus.

 

[Dagan]

It's nice that we seem to have more Christians on the forum. I felt like the only one for years. And it probably drives certain others on the forum bonkers, so that's a plus.

Dang, man. You basically just said, "We Christians can be annoying, and that's awesome!" I don't think that's how you are supposed to do the whole witnessing bit.

 

[NB79]

Dang, man. You basically just said, "We Christians can be annoying, and that's awesome!" I don't think that's how you are supposed to do the whole witnessing bit.

I think he sort of meant a lot people get annoyed unreasonably.
Today this is common just showing up to school with a bible verse seems like an act of bravery.

 

[Fino]

Dang, man. You basically just said, "We Christians can be annoying, and that's awesome!" I don't think that's how you are supposed to do the whole witnessing bit.

It's a joke that references years of experiences on this forum, but I have never mentioned Christ with the intent to annoy. That part happens on its own.

 

[Magna]

From what I gather a definition of "faith" as being discussed here is the belief that something that could very possibly be false is instead true. Since believing something that's very possibly true, is if nothing else, a lesser level of faith.

In other words you have to have a greater amount of faith that God makes the sun rise in the morning than you do having faith that the rotation of the earth will continue to "make" the sun rise in the morning.

Or a more succinct way to put it: "You have to have more faith to believe something you can't see or prove than you do believing something you can see or prove."

 

[Dagan]

It's all good to me. I'm laughing. I can see the humor from either perspective.

Magna --- If I get this right trying to be clearer (I hope), I feel like anyone's level of faith may truly come down to what they can't reason otherwise. I don't mean that to offend anyone, but I can see how people would take offense. I promise it's not me being malicious and calling anyone dumb, though. Here me out. It's the calm conclusion I have that different people have different levels of what they can understand and/or accept as understanding. It gets tricky in a contradictory sort of way concerning anyone who doesn't accept anything about science and only religion (to me) because I seriously understand science to simply be the study of everything and how it functions - if you believe that your god is the why of everything and why it ever came to be and therefore function...okay...cool...you therefore do believe in science after all because science is seriously just studying what "is" and how it "is" etc. etc. etc. It's essentially studying the details of what you claim your god is responsible for. We're all on the same page, just using different terms or perspectives, but again, I have a much clearer understanding of it overall than others who can't reason the complexities that I do....but that goes vice versa for me compared to way smarter others. I hope I made that all clear enough. Anyway, point being...that's why I feel like so many different levels of faith exist because people have whatever amount of trust in what they accept as evidence...and then they just believe via faith on all of the rest.

 

[Fino]

From what I gather a definition of "faith" as being discussed here is the belief that something that could very possibly be false is instead true. Since believing something that's very possibly true, is if nothing else, a lesser level of faith.

In other words you have to have a greater amount of faith that God makes the sun rise in the morning than you do having faith that the rotation of the earth will continue to "make" the sun rise in the morning.

Or a more succinct way to put it: "You have to have more faith to believe something you can't see or prove than you do believing something you can see or prove."

But God causes things to happen through natural phenomena. The rotation of the sun may be due to naturalistic scientific principles that can be studied and identified, but faith comes in when one believes that these scientific principles were put into place by God.

 

[Magna]

The rotation of the sun may be due to naturalistic scientific principles that can be studied and identified, but faith comes in when one believes that these scientific principles were put into place by God.

Precisely. Believing God is the underlying reason for the sun rising when the sun rising doesn't need an underlying reason to be explained.

 

[Fino]

Precisely. Believing God is the underlying reason for the sun rising when the sun rising doesn't need an underlying reason to be explained.

Yes, I like that.

 

[Au Naturel]

Faith is what makes you feel good when reality sux, and there doesn't appear to be any remedy. It is a kind of hope that doesn't require evidence to exist and even proceeds in the face of strong counter-evidence. When you have nothing else, faith might get you through to a low probabilty event or an unforeseen event, should one happen.

You don't need faith for this to happen. But it is easier for many to have "faith" than it is to accept the likelihood of failure and continue to proceed because you intellectually understand that improbable things can happen, there are unknown variables you haven't accounted for, and that even if failure is inevitable, that's not a reason to feel bad.

If you are going to die in ten minutes, you might as well enjoy them.