Does faith mean that one abandons common sense and disregards all evidence to the contraray of their beliefs?

Answer 1

No.

Faith is the belief in the abundance of evidence (see: complexities of creation).

Answer 2

Religious faith is a leap. It's a leap away from reason.

There are two basic uses of the word faith. The general meaning of "trust" is the sort of faith that everone has. You can trust things based upon your experiences and your assessment of probabilities. Thus you might have faith when you turn on the lightswitch the light will probably turn on. It's not an absolute certainty, you know that there's a chance that it won't. But you figure it probably will.
Religious faith is different. It is a sure and certain knowledge that what you hope is true is, in fact, true. Faith is the evidence of things you don't have enough objective evidence to conclude is true. Faith is its own evidence- you know something is true because you have faith in it. Religious faith is NOT a conclusion based upon the evidence. If so there would be no need for the concept of faith, you'd just have conclusions.
This doesn't mean that someone with faith doesn't look at the evidence. Many do. But their conclusion isn't altered by the evidence. No matter what the evidence shows, their faith tells them that their conclusions are true.
I trust a lot of things and people. I have no religious faith about anything.

Answer 3

In the religious sense, yes it does. Religious dogma requires that you abandon all intelligent thought and just believe what you are told. That is why there are so many problems in the world caused by religion. The root of most wars are religious beliefs. The root of most ignorance is also largely religious insistence on believing the absurd in the guise of faith. Faith, on the other hand, is really just the trust that everything is going to be the way it was told to you. That is not a good place to operate from. You miss a few of the details along the way.

Answer 4

Most people sincerely believe faith is believing something although there is no proof. That's crazy!
Faith, as referred to in the Bible, is based on knowledge.
Romans 10:17 says:
"Faith follows the thing heard."
One must hear, think, reason, meditate, dig into the matter to prove it to themselves ....then trust it.
The same idea is alluded to in Romans 10:14 where Paul asks what to do if one has no faith.
He answers his own question by adding:
"How will they put faith in God if they never HEARD about Him?"

Hebrews 11:1 gives a definition of faith. One bible version says:
"The demonstration of REALITIES though not beheld."
In other words, faith doesn't take us away from the real world.
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament: says the following about faith:
“at the heart of the meaning is the idea of certainty . . . in contrast with modern concepts of faith as something possible, hopefully true, but not certain.”
Example:
You have studied and researched new moons.
You know every September 23rd their will be a new moon, full and round.
Come September 15th, you start telling people there will be a new moon next week.
They haven't studied the subject. They don't know.
But because of your acquired knowledge ...you have faith.

Answer 5

Yes. Faith is, by definition, 'belief in that which is not observed'. There can be no evidence, pro-or-con, of faith issues. Faith defines an axiomic principle.

The observations you make outside that axiomic principle can be interpreted in the scope of that axiomic system. For example, a fundamentalist Christian may look at some obscure fossil and decide that, in light of his/her religious beliefs, it was put there by satan to deceive him/her. An agnostic scientist, on the other hand, would see a primary artifact of evolution and various physical principles.

Faith is not something you can support with evidence, it's something you reinterpret your evidence based on.

Answer 6

Faith doesn't mean that you just abandon common sense. It means you give up your ability to question, reason, and examine the world around you, including empirical facts. Faith means that you stick to a belief without hesitation, and even if you have questions, you ultimately overlook your doubts and revert to your faith. Faith means that seeing is not necessarily believing.

Answer 7

No. Faith is the vehicle for belief; it moves our sight through our perception, (sight being our true ability to see; perception being a wish fulfilled--making images--).

One need not abandon common sense, for it is wrapped up in the totality of our life as free creations of perfect Love. There are no divisions.

Answer 8

To give a short, simple answer: no. Faith is the belief in something. I have faith that there is a wall behind my bed. I can’t see it right now, but I know that is it there? Why, because I have seen it before. I have faith that there are germs. I can’t see germs, but I know that they are there because you can observe them beneath a microscope and you can feel their effects. I believe in gravity. You cannot see gravity, but you can feel its presence. I have faith that there is a cough-drop wrapper next to my computer. Why? Because I can see it right now. These are all forms of faith that people encounter in their day to day lives. Now, as for religious faith, it follows the same principals. I suggest reading Aquinas, C.L. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton.
As for Dogmatic faith, that is the belief in the truth of a Dogma, which is a religious teaching that claims infallibility. I have tested every Dogma of my faith against many arguments and found that it is reasonable. My church also encourages questions.

Answer 9

You know what I find funny about questions like these? I have put more time, more study, more thought, more reasoning, into studying the bible in the last ten years than I ever did into all my schooling. Faith is the opposite of what you describe. My faith isn't blind; it is "reasoned". Why should I take the "evidence" of men over the word of God? Scientists are always coming up with new information that negates last year's "evidence".

No, thank you. I will stick with God's word, which is the same yesterday, today, forever.

Answer 10

Do you think you're above this? Everybody needs faith to be able to function on a daily basis. You have faith that your friends will be honest with you (even though people lie all the time),

you have faith that when you go home tonight people will follow the traffic rules enough to get you home without accident(even though accidents happen all the time),

you have faith when you get home that all your stuff will still be there (even though your lock on your door isn't really that strong).

We need faith (even if it's not in a God), or we'd all be paranoid wrecks!

Answer 11

God is real, and He cares for you. Furthermore, He alone has the answers to life's deepest questions: who we are, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going when we die.

And no, you don't have to commit "intellectual suicide" to become a Christian. In fact, the opposite is the case; some of the most intelligent people I've ever met were men and women who were highly respected in their fields but also deeply committed to Jesus Christ. They were convinced that the Bible's words about Jesus were true: In Him "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).

This is why I hope you won't take your cues from people whose knowledge of Christ is only secondhand, or based on what someone else told them about Jesus. Instead, I invite you to examine Jesus for yourself by reading the accounts of His life found in the Gospels of the New Testament.

When you do, you'll not only be surprised by His personality, but you will want to put your life into His hands. Don't give up searching for God, for the greatest joy we can ever know is the joy of knowing God personally. God's promise is for you: "If you seek him, he will be found by you" (1 Chronicles 28:9).