Is faith itself the biggest problem?

Question

I've been thinking about why we see the evil things people do today - genocide, murder, terrorism. So much of it religiously motivated.
So this is extremism and not the true interpretation of religion in the modern context. People commit atrocities with the belief (faith) they will go to paradise, or that they are doing something for the greater good. But religious moderates also advocate faith, which teaches us to believe without questioning, not to look for the answers to big questions, and not to recognise (not the same as tolerate) any point of view which contradicts what we have faith in. To this end, is faith really a good thing? It doesn't seem right to say "this is private, you can't challenge it, you must respect it" when at best it is a barrier to understanding in the moderate and an incitement murder in the extreme case.

Thanks for the answers so far - just to confirm, I'm not trying to confuse faith with trust, culture or heritage. These are absolutely to be respected. However I'm definitely saying that faith and learning (in the context of the world around us) do NOT fit together comfortably.

Answer 1

That's a bit of an extreme view in and of itself. Personally, I'm an Athiest, but I understand why, how and that other people have faith in a religion or some sort of deity above themselves. Faith alone is not an evil thing. It's when faith is put into hateful doctrine and untrustworthy, unsavory people that it can be used as a weapon. But that generally can only happen in some sort of an organized setting (i.e. religion). That's not to say that ALL religion is bad, but when it's misused and misconstrued, all the elements are in place for any hostility or negativity to be targetted at other people.

I think that the religious sense of "community" is grossly overrated. If you're going to study what you perceive to be the "Word Of God", then you should do so individually. That will greatly reduce to risk of external contaminants and discrimination.

What we all need is just a bit of respect, tolerance, and love for one another. That goes for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Hindus, Agnostics, Zoroastrianists and everything in between. Faith isn't the issue. People are.

Answer 2

The problem is not religion itself, it's the way religion is used to brainwash crowds that makes it dangerous. What matters are the values people have, no matter where they get them from. Discrimination and prejudice stem from Ignorance, and Ignorance is often a prerogative of religious people as well as the means extremist leaders use to control the mass and gain power. Thousands of ancient books of wisdom have been burnt by religious leaders in the past, so that nobody would get closer to the truth. Even nowadays certain 'unconvenient' books are censored or considered blaspheme just because they raise questions and objections to traditional beliefs. I believe that everybody has the right to believe in anything they want, and that religion should be just a personal experience rather than a mass phoenomenon. Open your eyes and ears, read more, learn more about other cultures and their beliefs, respect every single individual regardless of their religion, color, race and culture, don't let other people tell you what to believe, and maybe one day people will stop killing each other in the name of religion.

Answer 3

1. Faith is essential for stability of mind and spirit
2. Blind faith which is being advocated by all religions is the biggest problem for the human ( we are seeing conflict among the religions ,dis-apearance of love among the humans,terrorism ,suffering in life etc) although it works a little bit to stablise the mind.This is a method searched by primitive humans
and we are using so old technique in current modern era also that is why it does not work on current intellectual humans.
3.In modern era you need not do blind faith rather search what is the reality of GOD and experience yourself then faith developed in you will work for you which is essential core of humans.
4. To achieve this you need spiritual guide who does not belong to any religion or has left all religions or you can search on your own if you have enormous courage and ready to die.

Answer 4

Hello,

Your question is an excellent one and I tend to agree with your arguement that the problem is "faith" (I'm an atheist). Why? OK The problem with faith is its completely irrational, it just doesnt make any sense to me whats so ever.

Example: ask a born again christian who created life, the universe and everthing? they will say GOD created it all.

I say prove it? where is the evidence that god created everthing, they say its true because its in the bible. Who wrote the bible all those thousands of years back? Anyway it all boils down to christains saying you have to have faith as they cannot actually provide any real evidence that their god created anything at all.

**Faith = blind belief, or believe it because we tell you its true. Non sense. No of this makes any rational sense.

**This is what Richard Dwarkins new book is all about, its called the God Delusion and its a fascinating read too.

IR

Answer 5

Faith can be Material Faith: you belive in what others said but you don't really have experience of it yourself. Therefore it is a blind faith.

Spiritual Faith: you can see the Lord or His representative, thus you will not see difference between people accordinly to any designation (race, religion, gender, etc) rather you see the spiritual soul in all living beings .

Answer 6

Your concept of faith in the Christian sense is all wrong my friend. The Bible also says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge". We MUST have knowledge, we must try to find out things. God gave us brains to do this!

Faith is NOT to believe without questioning - indeed, the Bible teaches us to TEST the spirits, etc. Jesus NEVER taught what you are saying you consider to be faith! The whole problem with many religions is that people are sucked into tradition and remain in it because they have been brought up in it and do not question it.

As a Christian, I know that for instance, not all pastors teach the correct things, indeed, sometimes a pastor who teaches the Word of God is not even saved!

Faith in a Christian context is more like talking to God and believing that He hears. Faith is believing in God even when you cannot see HIm. Faith is believing that God will work out your life for good. Etc., etc.

Faith in God through Jesus Christ is awesome.

Answer 7

One true faith is a gift. Some people are mislead because they grow up without access to the outside world.

Answer 8

I think the big problem came in where we've ben thinking that we mustn't look for the "big answer"...central to the Christian faith is the opinion that there is something MORE...
But yes, people do justify what they do with their reiligion...but lets face it...anyone can make up anything and then justify themselves...
So in the end, its up to the judge!
It's no use blaming some "higher authority" for stupid things people do!

Answer 9

Yes yes and yes. I entirely agree. Belief in a supernatural being is all the justification an extremist needs in order to hate another group of people.

Answer 10

Don't blame faith,but the total arrogance in believing you have the ONLY true faith and you can change(convert)the non-believers or eliminate them from the earth in order to keep them from contaminating your beliefs.