Many believers have told me that they believe because they have faith. In fact, they will believe in spite of a lack of evidence or in spite of evidence to the contrary.
If I told you that I believed the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1942, but rather they had attacked Los Angeles, you would expect me to back up my claim with evidence. If I told you I believed it through "faith," you would rightly think I was a nut case.
But when someone makes claims about a religious issue, and they say they believe it because they have faith, we are supposed to take that as a legitimate claim?
I used to think that "faith" was something like "hope" or "wishful thinking." Now, I'm beginning to see it is not something as rational as either of those. It seems a lot more like denial with a different name.
2007-09-01 15:41:43 · 19 answers · asked by skeptic 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Cindy, you do not know me. I have tried many times.
2007-09-01 15:53:52 · update #1
jaspers mom - what are you talking about? They probably set up the nets and check them before their acts. They can see them as they are climbing their poles.
2007-09-01 15:55:47 · update #2
OOPS! I really did mean to write 1941. Sorry for the typo folks (Dec. 7th 1941) - "A day which will live in infamy."
2007-09-01 16:00:51 · update #3
Joseph G - because we can inject certian chemicals such as hormones into a person, or stimulate their brain with electrical impulses, that will produce feelings of love, we can be fairly confident that love is a physical process in the brain.
2007-09-01 16:06:44 · update #4
bigbentley911 - so you're saying that because there is a lot of stuff out there that you don't understand, you have faith. I guess you answered my question in the affirmitive.
2007-09-01 16:10:24 · update #5
St. Preachy the verbose - please use logic and reason to explain to me how Jesus was born of a virgin and how he was able to live again after 3 days of death.
2007-09-02 06:13:32 · update #6
bigbentley911:
You do not understand the way science works. Sure there are a lot of unknowns and unanswered questions out there. But science does not say "OK, then let's just insert any answer we like and believe in it."
In fact it is the antithesis of that. There is no "faith" in science the way most people define it. Scientists are quite content to admit it when there are things they don't understand (unlike religious people). In fact if you pretend to know things you do not in science, you will be quickly shot down. However, pretending to know what you can not in religion is the apotheosis of a believer.
2007-09-02 09:23:43 · update #7
Probably because science has yet to prove where all the "gases" that made the universe came from, ie the Big Bang Theory.
Id love to know how someone can honestly tell me that they can believe that random clouds of gas and particles can be so powerful and so mystical that they where just always there and didn't have a creator but yet they cant believe in God?
And if those gases and particles really existed, how on earth did they make an entire universe and all the life on earth and then just vanish without ever being found again?
skeptic: So then I guess you do to? You cant give me an answer to my question so you must have faith in science.
Any time someone does not have absolute positive evidence you must have faith to fill in the holes. Everybody votes me down because they hate knowing the possibility that there FAITH in science has yet to yield absolute evidence and it could be wrong. Science is about facts. When facts exist, I believe.
40 percent of science is fact and 30 percent is faith and the other 30 percent is human error.
We cant even predict the weather for tomorrow accurately yet everyone is willing to belive science has no faults
2007-09-01 16:04:15 · answer #1 · answered by bigbentley911 1 · 0⤊ 5⤋
You're absolutely right - it's a belief - there is no logic or reason you should believe anything that isn't provable. But we have a lot of science that is not yet discovered or provable, just a belief or theoretical. So lets ask, is there theoretical proof for the existence of God? Life exists, but man can't figure out how or why? Score 1 for God. We have an innate internal sense that we know right from wrong that goes beyond instinct? why - Score 2 for God. Given that all life started from a single event, why the vast diversity? Wouldn't evolution drive everything to a single perfect life form - is that the logical end to evolution? Score 3 for God. When you find yourself in a life or death situation, for some strange reason - the existence of a God is no longer questioned. Not a lot atheists return from wars.
2016-05-19 00:50:17 · answer #2 · answered by shannan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There IS NO logical or rational reason for faith- which is why as Christianity was being formed, they discouraged followers from questioning. If you questioned the doctrines, you couldn't possibly have faith. If you have faith, you don't need to question. That meant that they could write whatever they wanted to and expect followers to blindly accept their "holy bible". They did- and they did! Amazing!
2007-09-01 17:09:50 · answer #3 · answered by nanny411 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christians feel that it is very closed minded to believe that the universe stops at a person's fingertips.
I use the example of love. Most of us have fallen in love with someone.
How can you use science to explain why you love one person, and not another? Can we give 5 scientifically sound and wholly unique reasons why a man loves his wife? or his children?
Why do you love your favorite song? Your favorite artist?
I could never explain scientifically why I ove the 5th symphony, better than any other piece of classical music.
The fact that a religious belief can not be tested scientifically is not a concern to me. My universe is too big to fix under a microscope.
2007-09-01 15:58:48 · answer #4 · answered by Joseph G 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Didn't the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941?
2007-09-01 15:52:24 · answer #5 · answered by Champion of Knowledge 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Faith does not preclude logic and reason. Faith without logic leads to people like Benny Hinn getting rich. Logic without faith leads to cold, detached, existential despair, at least, if the faithless are willing to follow their unbelief to it's logical conclusion. If you aren't, well then there goes the logic that you seem so proud of.
2007-09-01 17:08:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can't explain it, I wish I could. I won't claim such wisdom. I guess that a rational mind knows its limitations. We'll have to wait for a believer to come along and explain it for us. I'm sure one of them will have the answer.
2007-09-01 16:00:02 · answer #7 · answered by Boris Bumpley 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Let me answer it like this. When you go to the circus and you see the trapeze artists do their thing, they don't see the net there but they have faith that is there. Just because I can't see God or know what He has in store for my future does not mean that I don't believe He is there. I know God is there and I have faith in His plan with my life
2007-09-01 15:49:58 · answer #8 · answered by jaspers mom 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This is not just something people say. This is the official teaching of all Christian churches (I am not sure of other religions). And it get worse. If you ask how do people get faith, and why some don't, the official answer is that God arbitrarily decides who it give faith (officially known as grace) to!! So in effect the claim is that God is a sadist who denies to most people the faith they need in order to be saved and condemns them to eternal torment through NO fault of theirs!!! This is the official teaching.
2007-09-01 15:46:44 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Look, most of us have experienced many things that make us truly believe. I have been questioning my faith for a long time, but nomatter what, I will never not believe, because God has proven to me he is real, and has to many other people also, you dont see it, or witness it because you refuse to give him the chance to show you.
2007-09-01 15:48:22 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋