Is faith a tool for living or a reliable way to acquire knowledge?

Question

Whenever I ask people about faith, before they explain how faith allows them to really know anything, they talk about what faith does for them, they talk about the positive effects it has on their lives and well-being. Whether that's true or not, is faith a reliable way to know things? If a person has faith in something despite overwhelming evidence pointing in another direction, aren't they just avoiding reality? There is a tension between the beneficial effects of faith as a tool for getting through life and basing beliefs on faith rather than on evidence and logic. Correct? What do you think?

Answer 1

I think I generally agree with the direction you're going. It is, and should be, a tool for living; and it should be examined in light of knowledge--what good is a screwdriver when all you have to work with is nails? I'm not saying one should discount their faith in light of facts, but instead acknowledge that there will likely be discrepancies between what they believe and what they learn. So long as the belief doesn't cripple their lives, I don't see a problem with it.

Answer 2

Evidence,logic and scientific proofs are helpful up to a point only. Beyond that when you have still questions remaining unanswered, you have two options. 1. Accept that the tools available at present are not adequate to analyze and give the right answers and wait for a long time to know the truth. 2. Accept the faith. The first option will leave you an agnostic and the second option will leave you a faithful.

Answer 3

Whether they realize it or not, people use faith all the time. If you go to work, at the end of a given period you expect to be paid, even though you have absolutely no proof that the employer has any money left let alone a bank account with money in it. When you drive on the road you expect that people will stay in the correct lane of traffic and observe the traffic laws. Anyone can violate these laws and quite often they do but we still act as if they will obey the rules. This is by faith.
I Cr 13;8a
11-1-6

Answer 4

faith is an intangible...yeah? the learning tool is the mind wouldn't you say? i hear tell that it is the strongest implement a person will ever need want desire. the mind has been known to be powerful enough to overcome cancer (for want of a better example). the mind never stops gathering input from everywhere you go as your senses are always functioning. now we're into conscious and subconscious. conscious is what you are experiencing in the present. subconscious is the data stored in memory. from time to time one may refer to this memory to resolve problems that require this data.

faith is an element that you cannot feel touch or smell. i always seem to have faith that a chair will support my weight should i decide to sit; this after having learnt (with my mind) what a chair is. you may have faith in God and only he would know the measure of your faith. if i have further thought on this matter you will see the change as i edit this answer. it's late...past my bed time

Answer 5

I'll reserve some faith for Las Vegas ..... but Scientific method is much more reliable . and faith in what has proven reliable is
more reasonable than blind faith in unsubstantiated myths or religious spins.Before Adolph Hitler took full advantage 90% of the American people had faith in him ! Blind faith is not a good idea when the mislead are dealing with evil propaganda . if it's just trifling academia who cares ?

Answer 6

Faith in God is a very powerful thing. When I needed God the most when times for me were really bad God answered my prayers. When My family was fighting and abusing me God got me out of that situation and into a much better place. I am now married and I always wanted a little girl. I prayed and I was sent a beautiful little girl. God is amazing, if you call and pray for Jesus and your in need of help, he listens to every prayer.

Answer 7

faith has made my life more enjoyable no evidence pointing to any other way avoiding reality do you drink achohol you need to drink less your logic has no base just opinion and that overwhelming evidence for me

Answer 8

i believe faith is a tool you have to already know in your heart how to use faith but to live it you have to use the tools god gives you

Answer 9

Faith is a character flaw, and not a way of acquiring knowledge at all.

Answer 10

The Era of Unity

All the signs of the times indicate that we are at the dawn of a new era in the history of mankind. Hitherto the young eagle of humanity has clung to the old aerie in the solid rock of selfishness and materialism. Its attempts to use its wings have been timid and tentative. It has had restless longings for 210 something still unattained. More and more it has been chafing in the confinement of the old dogmas and orthodoxies. But now the era of confinement is at an end, and it can launch on the wings of faith and reason into the higher realms of spiritual love and truth. It will no longer be earthbound as it was before its wings had grown, but will soar at will to the regions of wide outlook and glorious freedom. One thing is necessary, however, if its flight is to be sure and steady. Its wings must not only be strong, but they must act in perfect harmony and coordination. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says:—“It cannot fly with one wing alone. If it tries to fly with the wing of religion alone it will land in the slough of superstition, and if it tries to fly with the wing of science alone it will end in the dreary bog of materialism.”
Perfect harmony between religion and science is the sine qua non of the higher life for humanity. When that is achieved, and every child is trained not only in the study of the sciences, and arts, but equally in love to all mankind and in radiant acquiescence to the Will of God as revealed in the progress of evolution and the teachings of the Prophets, then and not till then, shall the Kingdom of God come and His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven; then and not till then shall the Most Great Peace shed its blessings on the world.
“When religion,” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “shorn of its superstitions, traditions and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science, then there will be a great unifying, cleansing force in the world, which will sweep before it all wars, disagreements, discords and struggles, and then will mankind be united in the power of the love of God.”

Knowledge of God

But if the essence is unknowable, the manifestations of its bounty are everywhere apparent. If the first cause cannot be conceived, its effects appeal to our every faculty. Just as knowledge of a painter’s pictures gives to the connoisseur a 203 true knowledge of the artist, so knowledge of the universe in any of its aspects—knowledge of nature or of human nature, of things visible or of things invisible—is knowledge of God’s handiwork, and gives to the seeker for Divine truth a real knowledge of His Glory. “The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.—Ps. xix, 1–2.

Arts, Sciences, and Crafts

Training in arts, sciences, crafts and useful professions is regarded as important and necessary. Bahá’u’lláh says:—
Knowledge is like unto wings for the being (of man) and is like a ladder for ascending. To acquire knowledge is incumbent upon all, but of those sciences which may profit the people of the earth, and not such sciences as being in mere words and end in mere words. The possessors of sciences and arts have a great right among the people of the world. Indeed, the real treasury of man is his knowledge. Knowledge is the means of honor, prosperity, joy, gladness, happiness and exaltation.—Tablet of Tajallíyát.