What practical applications come from Faith? And from Reason?

Question

Beside preparing for the Afterlife, can anyone name anything practical that Faith, rather than Reason, has produced since the time we lived in caves?

I got many good answers that make me think, mostly how to express my thoughts better.


For Paradox Creator

Yes, I did not live in caves either. “We” is not intended to be literally interpreted. But for those who can’t think too abstractly and are very literal I’ll rephrase my thought by saying that some members of the human species in prehistoric times lived a very uncomfortable life, in caves, without supermarkets, or health clinics, gas stoves, dining rooms, beds, etc. -- should I be more concrete to point out the difference of how people once lived as compared to how we live today (and by “we” I mean literally you and I)? Does Faith have anything to do in changing how people’s life improves?
For Omega

You say that “All knowledge that can be measured and interpreted through reason is intercepted through our senses, sight, smell and what not. Well we can never truly trust our senses since we often hear things and see things that are not really there.”

Let’s start with

Let’s start with knowledge. ALL knowledge is acquired through the senses, whether one trusts them or not. The fact that we make errors in our conclusions is not that the senses should not be trusted. On the contrary, it is precisely that our conclusions are hasty. My senses tell me that the sun moves around the earth, but it isn’t Faith that discovers that IN FACT it is the earth that moves around the sun. Further sensorial investigation and a good dosage of LOGICAL REASONING will point out the truth. Faith is a hasty feeling. It is a conclusion based on a hunch. Faith is important because one has to start somewhere to put forth a hypothesis, but the rational man knows that a hypothesis should not be confused with a conclusion. Faith is a good, positive sentiment to have. I am not against any emotion.

I only give emotions their correct role. They arise from the knowledge we have. If we have no knowledge about some natural phenomenon, we start imagining, hypothesizing. That is natural and a necessary quality of our conceptual brain, but one must not stop at appearances. One must investigate until our knowledge is integrated without contradictions with the rest of reality.

Most other people who replied seem to place the emotion of faith in some privileged position in human life, more privileged than any other emotion, such as desire, fear, anger, annoyance, happiness, compassion, etc. Emotions are responses to sensations and depend entirely on the knowledge of reality we have acquired. They are automatic responses. One does not command them. One cannot force himself to believe something that contradicts his knowledge. First comes the knowledge of something, then the emotion. Just like one cannot desire to eat dirt, if he knows that dirt is not tasty. Babies don’t know this, and they put anything in their mouth. Then they acquire knowledge!

Remember: Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed. (Francis Bacon)

For
I am afraid you require an entire dissertation on the concept of interpretations of words. It is very clear what I mean by Faith. It is equivocal to start giving that words esoteric meanings, from either Greek or any other ancient language. Concretely, what do we mean when we say that we have Faith in God? We mean that we believe that a living entity of pure spirit, intelligent, immanent, all-powerful, all-knowing, pre-existing all reality, intentionally and directly responsible for causing the existence of the universe and everything that happens in it is actually known to us through an emotion called Faith, even though such an entity is not self-evident, and its very existence would contradict all the known laws of physics, chemistry, and biology.

Answer 1

Nothing that duct tape can't do.

Answer 2

I think you are asking the wrong questions. Faith and reason truly go hand in hand. While many people would disagree with my last statement it is as true a statement as they come. All knowledge that can be measured and interpreted through reason is intercepted through our senses, sight, smell and what not. Well we can never truly trust our senses since we often hear things and see things that are not really there. We also can't be certain that what we see and hear not just a hallucination or a dream. So our senses are not completely trustworthy. So we must have faith in what we see and hear. So you could say that all human existence, all existence of everything truly depends on faith. Plus, faith can provide a fulfilling sense of self that reason can never truly achieve. So your question is essentially a trick question so to speak. I hope I was able to help, I understand if I don't get best answer for this though since I really didn't directly answer the question.

Answer 3

Reason is not alien to faith. Somehow I get that from you. I think that's one of the reasons why so many reject faith as a word, they don't understand it.

This is where I get the idea that faith is logically applied and reasonably understood.

In the Bible, the Greek used is where the translators got what it was they translated. If I look back into what they got, I can get the original words, as close as possible to what was written before copies were made. English can be terribly inaccurate, one reason is because English does not have the word forms that Greek allows, and Hebrew as well for that matter.

This is one of the words from the Greek which are translated as 'belief' or 'faith' :
pistis
Strong's Number: 4102
Noun Feminine

conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it

1. relating to God

If I wanted to talk about faith in Greek that was not talking about a conviction of truth in the direction of God then I would put the letter 'a' in front of it:
'apistis'
It doesn't make it a bad thing, faith can be in the car starting in the morning. Or flipping the light switch causing the light to come on. I trust that they will work.

But in the Greek, there is no neutral gear, you are either confident in the thing, or against being confident in a thing. You could also have only a little bit of confidence in a thing. But never neutral.

So the practical application is better understood when all pretense of knowledge is set aside, and the definition for faith is reapplied. Then we can understand faith in more than just religious things, it is also with any material thing that we put trust in, or confidence in.

I hope that helped you to understand.

Answer 4

It's an interesting point. Lots of empires and their monuments have been build upon the power, various religions offered to control the sheepish masses. I think, that up to the Democracy developed in Athens, 2600 years ago, religion was the instrument for leaders to wield power. The Romans expanded on the Greeks invention and this was the golden age of real science and social evolution. But naturally, old habits die hart and once more, religion took over during the dark ages and threw humanity back in time for a good 1600 years or more. Fortunately, with the help of Martin Luther and Gutenberg, once more, the Greek idea gained momentum and finally, through the industrial revolution, religion was sidelined as political instrument, at least until January 2000.

Answer 5

A practical use of faith is that it makes people feel happy or content if they have said faith. And it makes them feel like their life has a meaning and purpose. And it makes them feel loved no matter what. So basically, faith makes people happy. That's practical enough, right?

A practical application of reason is that people can use reason to figure things out. Naturally, figuring things out and understanding things is what allows people to do things. Without reason we'd be morons looking at animal tracks but having no idea where the animal went.

Answer 6

I never lived in a cave.

Mesapotamians, didn't live in a cave, they lived in sumer (the fertile cresent) ,they traded with the people of the mountains (cave men).

And they didn't really need faith for a after life first beliefs with them was that they would live in the dirt "swallowing sand all there days" not really something i would want to have faith in.

Answer 7

Firstly, I haven't ever really lived in a cave.

Secondly, you need to have faith in the 'Reason' of God. Reason would be the 'Logos' (Greek) of God or as it is written in John 1. In the beginning was the Word (Logos, Reason) and the Word was with God & the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him...

Answer 8

It is reasonable to have Faith, From our founding fathers it was faith that they held on to while fighting the British, It was faith that gave me strength to be a medic while serving in Afghanistan. Faith is a shield which can be used in all areas when we have nowhere to turn, it opens our eyes and spirit to listen to the heavenly father, and then the reason comes and we can see an outcome.

Answer 9

I can think of two things faith has produced - hospitals and universities. The first hospitals in the Western world were started by nuns, and the first universities were started by monks. These were men and women who began with faith, and this led them to truth and love.

Answer 10

When problems arise or difficult situations comes, faith is what solves them. This is my belief. Having reason is just analyzing to some extent, having faith is the end result for getting the answers.

Answer 11

Faith fills in all the little voids that reason leaves in the security of our existence... Hey that's pretty good! For my next trick, watch me pull a rabbit out of my azz!!