Is faith a virtue?

Question

Faith is belief without evidence. How can that be a virtue?

Answer 1

Belief without evidence? I'm not sure where you got that definition, but THAT certainly wouldn't be a virtue.

On the other hand:
- I have Faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, not because I know it will, but because it always has and I have no reason to suspect it won't.
- I have Faith that when my wife tells me something, it is most likely true whether there is evidence or not, simply because it is the testimony of someone I trust.
- I have Faith that the mountain I am living on will not slide into the sea during my lifetime, simply because there is no evidence to indicate it's geological instability.
- I have Faith that the Spanish Armada was once a mighty naval fleet, even though I have never seen it myself and have only the word of historical texts to support that belief.

There are all levels of belief, ranging from doubt to opinion to certitude. And the amount of confidence one places in a particular belief usually has to do with the reliability of the source (be it experience, second or third-hand information, or empirical evidence). Most of what we believe is based on the word of others more knowledgable about a particular thing than ourselves. If we didn't have the capacity to believe - at all levels of belief - what a paralyzed existence we would have, having to discover everything for ourselves. That's why Faith is a Virtue.

Answer 2

Faith is the *first* of the three theological virtues.

Hope and charity are the other two.


Faith is the foundation, without which one cannot be saved.

Faith is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for salvation (for all you students of logic out there).


We have to hope to be saved, thus indicating the need for the second of those virtues.

We need the theological virtue of charity residing in our souls at the point of death to be saved.


In mortal sin, usually charity, only, is killed but faith and hope remain (unless, of course, one sins against those very virtues).


But to answer the second question about faith being belief without evidence, that is not true.

Faith is a supernatural light given to the mind (which is infinitely subtle), that allows the soul to hold with *absolute certitude* what the Faith proposes to it to believe.


Faith is not the forced suppression of doubt, neither is it believing something arbitrarily without evidence, but it is the opening of the eye of the soul to the light - a light that is pure beyond purity, subtle beyond subtlety, and natural beyond naturalness.



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Answer 3

I was thinking about this very thing earlier today. You know, Jesus said that we had to have a childlike faith to enter the kingdom. It's very difficult for us, as rational human beings, to consider the possibility that knowledge can be a trap and not a pass to freedom. For example, if you know that people who eat fish have always broken your heart, you will be inclined to avoid people who eat fish. Your knowledge of prior situations has basically eliminated anyone who eats fish from your realm of possible relationships. Another example is speeding. You notice that you never get caught speeding, so you speed more. Then one day you get a ticket. However, since that only happened once it doesn't deter you from speeding. Then one day you end up in an accident because you were speeding.

Then there is the opposite. Your experiences show you possible areas of pain, like jumping out of trees, or skateboarding. Thus you stop doing these things. Then you have kids and you don't let them do these things because they might get hurt, and in the end they reject you for coddling them too much.

Faith is definitely a virtue, because knowledge can be a faith quencher. After all, if you can prove it to be real, it doesn't require faith, now does it?

Answer 4

It is clearly not a desirable trait. Whoever came up with the concept that unquestioning belief makes you a better person was responsible for the biggest con job in history. Faith is a vice on your thoughts, a hinderence to rational thought and completely indefensible as a philosophical viewpoint.

People say they have faith in god(s). What they really have is faith in what certain people have told them about god(s). The phrase "I feel it in my heart" has a twinge of self-delusion and self-fulfilling prophecy to it. They say if you have faith, god(s) will be real to you, basically saying that if you believe then you will believe.

Answer 5

Faith can be a good thing, Faith can make you hang on when you are about to let go. Faith is believing that the future will get better when you are going thru bad times. Faith is knowing that if it gets bad it will get good to. Faith is looking to the future with a smile. Faith does not have to mean religion.

Answer 6

Faith based on true inner experience is a virtue. Conversely, belief and superstition based on dogmas etc are not virtues.

Answer 7

Assuming something to be true before you have evidence for it is common, and you've done it yourself -- we all have to, in order to even get out of bed in the morning. What you find offensive is belief *in spite of* evidence to the contrary. I agree that is perverse, and a grievous, harmful fault rather than a virtue.

What I don't agree with is calling it "faith."

Answer 8

Faith is an excuse for people who are too lazy or too cowardly to seek the truth.

In fact, it's the antithesis of virtue.

Answer 9

Yes it is a virtue.

vir·tue (vûrch)
Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness.

I would think that having true faith would be a moral excellence because if you have TRUE faith then you believe with out any doubts which then means that you follow all the way.

I do not think that you can follow all the way with out faith, and I do not believe that you can have TRUE faith and not follow all the way. Where you are lacking in your actions is where you are lacking in your faith.

Answer 10

Hebrews 11:a million--faith is the guaranteed expectation of factors became hoping for, the glaring demonstration of realities although no longer beheld. observe: faith is the guaranteed expectation of factors became hoping for, the glaring demonstration of REALITIES although no longer beheld. faith isn't conception devoid of info. info is fundamental to faith, and for that count faith is likewise fundamental to technological know-how. How did technological know-how hit upon air? we gained't see it, we gained't listen it, we gained't style it, and so on. yet what scientists did comprehend is that there is a few thing that's being drawn into our lungs when we breathe, some thing became making the chest boost and detract, some thing became pushing round those leaves and that dirt and so on. So at the same time as they could no longer see it, they'd an glaring demonstration that some thing became there, and so as that they'd faith that in the adventure that they went looking there might want to be some thing there to discover. by the fashion, there became some thing. faith in God is way an same way. No, one can't see or listen God right away. yet there is info all round us that there is a few thing there to be discovered, and when we appeared, why lo and behold there became some thing there. that you pick to ignore the info isn't like me believing devoid of info. faith is the organic end of info, no longer conception regardless of the absence of info. And in case you've self assurance in technological know-how in any respect, then you should trust that faith is a distinctive feature. technological know-how is going searching for issues purely because scientists have a reason to trust some thing will be discovered in the adventure that they offer the impact of being. devoid of religion of their existence, many aspects might want to by no potential were got here across, atoms does no longer were got here across, radiation does no longer were got here across, and so on. The scientists might want to by no potential have bothered attempting firstly because they does no longer have believed that there became some thing to be discovered...they purely appeared because they'd faith that there became some thing to be discovered.