Christians - what is the benefit of faith vs. knowledge?

Question

For atheists, faith in god is difficult and, for some, impossible. Why would god design Christianity in a way that is so hard for some people to believe? What is the benefit for us to be forced into having faith (belief without knowlege) rather than just allowing us knowledge. [I hope this makes sense... I had a hard time finding the right words].

Thanks, but that's not really answering my question. I'm asking why
God thinks faith is better than knowledge.

Christians- why does God think faith is better than knowledge?

For the record, I am a an agnostic weak/implicit/negative atheist. So I have NOT made a leap of faith to declare that god doesn't exist. I have in fact NOT declared that god doens't exist. It is clear that some of you don't really know what that means.

And still nobody answered my question. I am genuinly looking for an answer.

Answer 1

It is a mistaken notion that faith requires belief without knowledge. As someone pointed out, some who are mentally or emotionally lazy may resort to "Well you just have to have faith" as if that is something one can simply manufacture within oneself. The knowledge that leads to faith is based upon the revealed will of God from his Word, the Bible. This requires study. Not just a cursory reading of the Bible, although that is a good start. In fact the Bible reveals that God wants us to serve him with our power of reason (Romans12:1) and with soundness of mind (2Timothy 2:1)

Think of it like love. You can not honestly say that you love someone whom you do not know. But as you get to know them you find things that you like about them and that make them lovable. This does not happen overnight. The same it true of faith.

Answer 2

Lemme try to give U a satisfying answer.o.k.
1. Benefit of faith v knowledge--
they don't work against each other
(possibly,yes 4 some ppl)
without knowledge, it is impossible to have faith.
How could a person have faith in something they've never heard of.
2. God didn't design Christianity so hard some ppl can't/ don't believe it---
In the scriptures it tells us the how and why some ppl don't "grasp the meaning."
It's the condition of ur heart
(not literal).
Do YOU want satisfying answers?;
Do YOU the truth? No matter what it is?
No matter, how difficult it may be it take in?
We are raised by our parents- to believe this or that; also, there's schooling and if the Bible teaches YOU differently from that, are YOU willing to accept God's word as that..God's Word?
If that is a yes, then you keep searching, reading, learning about God's personality and His will and purposes for mankind.
3. No benefit in forcing someone!! That is NOT what God wants. Whomever does /did such a thing is So! Wrong!
And will have to answer to Jehovah for that.

I only started studying the Bible 13 yrs., ago. I could not have faith without reading, learning. The way I was brought up--'don't believe everything u see and only 1/2 of what u hear'
So, I went to the local library and did research; How would I know if what I was being taught was true/truth/reality.
In the holy scriptures it likens gaining the truth to a human being-- when we are born we are but a babe drinking milk; as we grow, we eventually eat solid food. The truth is like that, a mature person with more experience brings you along, like a mom teaches her baby... to help you gain accurate knowledge.
It is this 'accurate' knowledge that nutures and feeds your faith.

edit:
tryingtohelp, u just backed up what I said w/ scripture;
May the peace of Jehovah always be with you.

Answer 3

Faith without any knowledge is blind faith. However one can use one's intellect to come to the belief in God. Both atheism and the belief in a God is an act of faith. to be an atheist you must believe that you have gathered enough knowledge to make a definite decision about God in the negative. Can you comprehend how much knowlewdge that would be? There are many books about Christianity and the logic behind it such as the case for Christ which gives a defense for many of the the attacks against it. ( there are many more but this one is probably the most easily read) But in the end you will have to take a step of faith. It is merely a question of in which direction you take that step.
If the question is why does God put such a high value on faith over knowledge. Abram had faith first. If one begins with believing without having knowledge first then one's heart is more open to God. Plus if knowledge were of a higher value than faith only those of great intelligence and knowledge could be considered righteous. This way All can be welcomed.

Answer 4

I am a Christian Gnostic, seeker of spiritual knowledge. We do have a choice between faith and knowledge. To illustrate: After the resurrection Jesus appeared to the remaining 11 disciples. They did not recognize him so he told them who he was. 10 said, in essence, okay we buy that. they had faith in what he said. He could as well have been Joe Blow from Lebanon with the latest in plastic wounds and red food color. 1, Thomas, said, I am not buying it until I can feel the wounds and know they are real and you are Jesus. Thomas was the first Christian Gnostic. He was the only one who had actually experienced the fact that Jesus was alive, not a ghost and not an impostor.

Answer 5

C-Bunny, I think the whole problem comes with a careful faithful analysis of the Genesis story with Adam and Eve. Remember the fruit from the tree that spawned Original Sin? It was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

To Christians, knowledge and reason are anathema. They are looked down upon and condemned in favor of faith... blind and devoted acceptance of their god's will, no matter what the price.

A large percentage of our nation's denizens will agree with me on this.

And people WONDER why Americans are so behind in the intellectual department.

Answer 6

Before I became a Born Again Christian, I was hard on the believers, wondering how they could be so far off in their beliefs. Then one day I was given a chance to accept Christ as my savior. deep inside I could feel the need to say yes.
One Saved i found that reading the Bible was an enlightenment. I was a knowledgeable person before I got saved. I became more centered on the knowledge as I had been given the Way, The Truth and The Life. Accepting Christianity as a way of life is not difficult. True the majority of your friends will no longer want to be around you, but then they really were not your friends. Being a Christian is not a life of ease. Jesus tells us "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is , you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 12:18-19. I chose to follow Jesus, I had the scales taken off my eyes and I began to see the light.

Answer 7

It all has to do with how you define and in some cases how you come to faith. For many in the West faith is a matter of just a continuation of the traditions with which they were raised and unbekief never really enters the picture because of the natural progression of understanding the trust in parental figures paralleling the eventual trust in God. Their faith is based on the evidence this trust reveals about ultimate truth.
There are those who will not believe regardless of the evidence or witness before them. This is not to say that they cannot believe, only that they will not. This is a matter of the will and its refusal to submit to anything that relegates self to a higher agent of moral culpability.
I was raised to believe in a God who was a tyrannical being looking around for those who were having fun and punish them with Hell for doing so. As I began my search for truth I studied most of the Philosophies and religions out there till I discovered that only through a relationship with Christ could I fully understand the beauty of creation. Naturalistic explanations did not have an answer for my own consciousness or the simple answers for why strawberries and chocolate should taste so good, or for why I have these overwhelming feelings of benevolence for friends and family. Without a God who gives such gifts as these they just seem subjective and without purpose or sense.
Eastern orthodox pantheist and polytheist theories deny the significance of the individual apart from its role as a fragmented section of an unseen whole.
Faith and knowledge are only as good as the object to which they are directed. I think the whole idea that knowledge itself is obtainable speaks of an underlying reality that makes knowledge and truth available in a subjective way to personal experience. This personal experience must be accounted for and it can only be done through relationship to all that is external to itself.
The inherent evidence in creation from the macro to the micro realities of existence causes me to trust in an underyling truth that seems to be nothing short of an in your face desire for the God of the universe to enter into a personal relationship with the object of His affection, you and I. I have found that when a response of the heart is given to this reality it is reciprocated with a validation that cannot be shared outside of simple human to human witness. Its very unlikely that I can enter into the skin and being of another and discover their existential experience and so its unlikely that I can share with you what having a relationship with a God who loves me is like outside of how I live and love in my life. But perhaps you might see how wonderful it is that strawberries and chocolate should taste so good, or that toes squishing in the mud after a summer rain can be such fun, or that the feel of flesh against flesh in the waking hours with the singing of the morning birds outside should be so rapturous?
Lots of evidence out there if your willing to see it. Real faith comes from evidence to the heart and mind and knowledge is no stranger to the place that it leads us.
God Bless you.

Answer 8

Actually ACCURATE Knowledge HELPS ESTABLISH Strong Faith

Answer 9

The two go hand-in-hand for a Christian.For the rest of humanity their faith takes precedence over the facts staring them in the face,yet claim to be logical and wise.

Answer 10

Faith is for people who don't want to think for themselves. They prefer to just answer everything with "God did it" than to investigate and discover.

Knowledge is the direct result from investigating and thinking!

Why would anyone of faith investigate when they can just pray to god for the answer? This is why we had the dark ages.