Since the the scriptures say to "have faith", then its evil to not have faith, right?

Question

Thank you.

tammidee - Its not blind, unless you think the creation is a cosmic accident.
But thats foolishness, so.

rainfog -
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

JP - Sorry, but there are soo many amazing things about the Bible that indicate inspiration, its authority, its accuracy,....ECT
Nice try though.

Joanne - The word is referring to willful rejection of faith mainly. Not people who have faith and are in a growing process.

JP - Thanks for mentioning two other main religions, they both use large portions of the holy scriptures. Truth is truth. Thats why they have similar aspects. Thanks for helping me make this point.

JP -
Proofs of Inspiration: (1) Unity of the Bible (2) Fulfilled Prophecy (a) Old Testament Events (b) Messianic Prophecies. (3) Scientific Accuracy of the Bible (4) Archeological Accuracy of the Bible (5) Miracles (6) The Style of the Bible (7) The Moral Standard of the Bible (8) The Bible--its very Survival

God gave people a conscience to know right from wrong, to know what truth is. So its not surprising that other types of people know about the things Jesus taught. You know that.

Thats partly how you will be judged by God. Regarding what you did with your knowledge of right and wrong.

JP-
A.S.A. Jones
09/01/02

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
I was a devout atheist for over twenty years. In July of 1998, I finally managed to see the biblical truths that had managed to elude me. The following is an account of how I went from hardcore skepticism to hardcore worship of the Savior, Jesus Christ.


RATIONAL THOUGHT REPLACES THE GOD OF MY YOUTH
I was raised a Roman Catholic in a home where the name of Jesus Christ and God was never mentioned. I was encouraged to attend catechism and church every weekend, but the concept of God was never made completely real to me. I entertained the notion as any child would, but I just wasn't into the imaginary friend scene and by the time I was thirteen, I had concluded that God was merely a vicious adult version of the Easter bunny. I abandoned the lie, informed my upset parents that I would no longer be attending church, and began seeking truth

In the absence of a religious belief to answer life's questions, I turned my mental energy to science. Science had an awesome track record of solving many problems and its resulting technology had provided tangible benefits to all of mankind. Science was the answer! I reasoned that if we could educate our populations and continue to make advances in medicine, agriculture and energy production, we would one day have the mythical Eden as our reality.

I threw myself into my studies, determined to become a scientific messiah who would one day deliver people from the bondage of disease. At the age of sixteen, my IQ and my grades made me eligible for my high school's early release program and I began my studies in biology and chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

RATIONAL THOUGHT REPLACES MY COMPASSION FOR OTHERS
I graduated from college with high honors and my prized science degree, but I had lost any motivation to apply that knowledge. I recalled staring at a swarming mass of termites one sunny day, thinking that, from a comparative distance, there was little difference between them and us. I smashed a few dozen with my shoe and ground them into the dirt. What did it matter if these died? What did it matter if they all died? People died every day. The end result would always be death for both the individuals and, eventually, the species.

Humanity had become nothing more to me than an organized network of molecules and enzymes. I viewed people as mere organisms going through their daily routines of metabolizing nutrients and expelling wastes, ovulating their eggs and ejaculating their semen. I knew the psychology of humans almost as well as their anatomies. The hidden things that pulled them this way and that were very evident to me. They were like guinea pigs, only more predictable, and my chief form of entertainment was to see how skillfully I could manipulate them. I knew that I was supposed to care about them, but I didn't. I couldn't. If mankind's goal was to alleviate its own suffering, a bullet to the head was more efficient and made more sense in my thinking than screwing around with medication or disease control.

What was the point of prolonging any one life? What difference did it make if a girl didn't live to marry or her mother live to see it? Of what value were temporary emotional experiences? They were simply the biochemistry of the brain reacting to sensory input and, upon that individual's death, any remaining memory of that experience would be thrown away along with the person who had experienced it. My extreme point of view had reduced people into throwaway metabolic units; I had become as cold and indifferent as the logic that I exalted.

If my education would benefit anyone, it would benefit me. I passed up an offer of a low paying research position for a secure and higher paying job in a chemistry lab. My brain rotted there for 40 hours a week for 10 years.

RATIONAL THOUGHT TURNS FROM SCIENCE TO PHILOSOPHY
Science had done nothing to answer the questions that raged in my head. Why should I care? How much should I care? Should I care at all? What is my purpose in life? Is there a purpose? How can I love people? Should I love people? Which people should I love? How can I forgive people? Should I forgive people? Have I done what is right? Have I done what is wrong? Is there a right or a wrong?

I turned to philosophy. I started with Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness". This man had won a Nobel Prize for basically taking white and logically demonstrating how it was really black. I tried several other atheist philosophers who tried to assign meaning to a life created by chance and I decided that they were all full of crap. If our life is the result of randomness and chance, it is meaningless, no matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise.

That was fine with me. I was prepared to live my life by this truth and discovered that the prospect of a life without meaning can be a very freeing experience. I set out to take advantage of moral relativism and effectively destroyed any of my remaining conscience. Friends, let me tell you, I fell far, far away, but I didn't know it. I busied myself with one diversion after another, trying to fill my life with meaningless activity in order to forget how meaningless it was. In my desperation, I grew self-righteous and indignant. I was secretly envious of the morons who seemed blissfully unaware of their own meaninglessness. I wanted to shake them awake and get them to see how worthless their lives really were.

MY PHILOSOPHY TURNS ANTI-CHRISTIAN
The worst idiots were the Christians. I hated them because, in their ignorance of naturalism, they failed to see that there was no reason for the rest of the world to believe in their god, live by their standards or give a damn about what they had to say, yet there they were, acting as if they had a copyright on truth. Their pretentiousness sickened me, despite my being equally pretentious toward them. After all, I was justified in my pretentiousness! At least I could give logical reasons for not believing in the supernatural.

I would challenge them to give reasons for believing in something that couldn't be seen and they would reply, "You can't see the wind but it's there." I would then try to explain to them that wind was created by differences in pressure and that there was plenty of scientific proof for the existence of wind but none for their god. Even the most intelligent Christians I knew had a difficult time articulating their reason for faith.

Most of the explanations I heard rested on the Bible's authority. "The Bible says... the Bible says... the Bible says." Who cared what the Bible said? I certainly didn't. "It's all a bunch of made up, superstitious baloney. Can't you see?" and I would then go into pagan origins, etc., and try to demonstrate that Jesus was a manufactured myth. I ended up knowing the Bible inside and out just to be able to debate against it.

Answer 1

That is correct; the Bible speaks of those who have a "wicked heart of unbelief".

http://www.needGod.com

Answer 2

You can already stop. You're a liar. The name of God and Jesus Christ are mentioned at every Mass. Your Bible is as false as you have just proven yourself to be.

Even if you somehow are NOT lying, and you belonged to a really screwed up church, testamony is not proof. You also have proven that you are an immoral person regardless of your religion -- without purpose, you inflicted death.

Your testamony is meaningless. However, if it takes the leash of a god and the collar of a religion to keep you from acting on these monsterous urges you feel, then you may wear them with my blessing. May your leash guide you well and may your collar serve as a constant reminder to others of the monster you are unleashed and uncollared.

----

Skepticism is the hallmark of a rational mind. You have lost yours. I pity you. G'night.

Answer 3

Wrong. Think about it, evil = no faith? Kind of absurd, isn't it. If you quote the bible, then read Matthew on how he separates people. It is not by faith, it is by actions. That makes more sense.

Answer 4

sence faith is a gift and thus no one has it unless it is given in and of itself not having faith is not evil and we all suffer from lack of faith and I mean all every one so trust in the one that said have faith and ask him fo it just try it with an open heart

Answer 5

If you don't have faith then you are doubting God, but then faith is a growth process, so not neccesarily evil. But you need to learn to have faith. That is something you should pray to have.

Answer 6

Dogs have a blind faith in there owners, maybe god wants us to behave and think like dogs.
Tammi Dee

Answer 7

It is not EVIL if you don't have faith. I think "evil" relates more to things you do, not things you aren't doing. ILacking faith may qualify as a sin of omission, but "evil" is probably overdoing it.

Answer 8

It is not possable that no one has faith, the Bible tells us everyone is given a measure of faith.

Answer 9

Its called the sin of unbelief.

Answer 10

No, the scriptures are evil