Why do christians think "faith" exempt their beliefs from examination or critique.?

Question

Whenever you question any points from the bible like how do you know God exists or how can you be sure there's an afterlife the stock christian response is "because I have faith," or "quoteth mark 2,11 "Jesus said have faith or you'll burn in hell,""

I mean faith as an argument just wouldn't hold up anywhere else in the world would it.

"Why didn't you hand in your homework?"
"I had faith you wouldn't notice,"

"Why did you run away from the crash?"
"I had faith the guy wouldn't want to sue me"

So why is faith an acceptable answer for something as important as your moral code and belief in afterlife.

Jeancommunicates- the reason I believe in evolution isn't faith, it's the fact through techniques and evidence that we have proved their are rocks over 200,000,000 years old. and through study of fossils and other evidence this is the best theory that the leading scientists can come up with, however if tomorrow another group of scientists came up with another theory which fitted the evidence available even better then I would believe that. However Christians are still using the best theory based on the evidence we had 2,000 years ago but refuse to accept the new evidence.

arewethereyet - Of course there will be some christians who try and argue their points using logic and rational responses, and it's nice when people do, but you look at 80% of the questions in the religion & Spirituality section therell be someone who answers, "bacuase I have faith in Jesus/God/ Deity"

Answer 1

Because as the years progress they lose touch with what REAL faith is.

Real faith MUST be built upon truth, facts and reality..even if you don't like that truth because it is the only way to move forward in life. I can all the faith I want that if I jump out of a space shuttle without a suit or O2 mask I will be fine...but I will die.

Faith is not supposed to replace basic truth or common sense+logic...it is supposed to work with it. Any other idea is basically saying you have turned your back on intelligence, reason, logic.

I do believe in a God..I believe it created the universe and setup the cosmic order...but if I were to have a blind faith that gravity was a myth, that would be insulting God and it's creation. A true believer would want to know more about how the universe works because he/she would be so impressed and awestruck by the work of God that he/she would try to figure out how it all works.

Answer 2

That is not necessarily true. While I or many Christians will promote faith before knowledge, this does not mean we have blind faith or are duped by men into some form of cult or another.

Many Christians observe the intricate complexities in life from the atom, to the molecule, to DNA, to life forms, to the planets and ultimately the universe and cannot help but marvel and feel there HAS to be something more that happenstance or random coincidence that formed all of this.

Other Christians hear WITNESSES, of many other Christians who testify with all soberness that the Gospel is true, they experienced miracles etc. When you listen to a MULTITUDE of witnesses you begin to suspect that hey, there must be something to this story.

Then a person studies the scriptures and observe the intrinsic goodness within, or discover various archaeological, historical, cultural, etc. findings that help support the claims of the scriptures that they are at least historically correct and show that a people mentioned in the Bible actually existed.

These factors and many others lead the person to THEN reach out in faith and test to see whether this is real or not. The Bible even ENCOURAGES you to do that very thing... there are parables of the sower where those who plant the seed, and nurture it, and water it... have it actually sprout and grow into a plant. When a person reaches out to God in faith believing they begin to experience various miracles, some small that could be dismissed as coincidences, some major that evicts all doubt out the door. Even with just coincidences you begin to get the message after several hundred or thousand coincidences.

So accepting the gospel on faith does not mean you will ALWAYS have to accept it on faith, but rather that is your first step.

Answer 3

Saving faith is a gift from God. It cannot be worked up or earned. It is not blind credulity or a cop-out from rational thinking or responsibility, which your examples demonstrate. If you wanted a valid, comparable example of Christian faith, it might be,
'Why don't you confess your sins regularly to a priest?'
'Because I have faith that the risen Christ is the only mediator between God and mankind, as the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 9.'

Faith illumines the Bible's moral code and statements about the afterlife as God's revelation to mankind. Unbelievers have their own moral codes, and nobody is knocking that - it's better than having no moral code. It's just that the principles at back of God's codes never change and are applicable at all times, to all peoples. Just compare the Ten Commandments with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to appreciate that fact.

You are entirely wrong to jump to the conclusion that Christians think their faith exempts their beliefs from examination or critique, just because a few individuals here might say silly things. Most of us are realistic enough to know that nothing we can say will convince you. Not even our actions will be 'read' right by unbelievers. It's a no-win situation, but we wish you well nevertheless, and pray that God will be as gracious to you one day as he was to us.

Answer 4

Faith in God is very different from the examples you used. You're comparing apples and oranges. The reason that we say faith is because, in the end, it really is the only answer. There are many of us who are thoughtful and do examine and critique our faith. But, obviously, science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. There is no empiracal evidence. You just either believe or you don't. If you do, you understand. If you don't, you don't.

Answer 5

I have answered thousands of questions on this forum, mostly in this section and I have never ever answered with "because I have faith" as an answer to "how do you know God exists" or afterlife questions.

I would suggest that perhaps you only read the answers you want to hear; and since you think this is the way we would answer a question, this is what you see.

Answer 6

This is a very broad question. Atheism literally means 'without god' and since most human acts of devastation have been in the name of one god or another, this would suggest that they are less harmful than people with a religion. If you think about it in a more abstract way, atheism promotes free thinking and the choice to believe what you want without the hindrance of someone telling you what is correct without any evidence. In this way, many religions actually promote ignorance over knowledge. (The reasoning behind this lays with early society humans trying to form a manageable society that functions well together. Religion is a very effective way to do this, hence why there are so many similarities between them). So depending on what you mean by harm, in early human society atheism could have been more detrimental to the progression of the human race but in recent times (the last 150 years or so) religion is losing its place in modern society.

Answer 7

Well, if you consider atheism honestly, it ultimately comes down to faith as well. The only path of belief that is truly based on logic is agnosticism. Not that I'm saying Christians rightfully believe in their god, but that's just the way it is. You can make a decent argument against any proof that there is or isn't a God and therefore the only recourse, if you intend to keep on believing, is simply faith.

Atheist.

Answer 8

Because their faith built on Trinity. This is the fundamental faith related issue causing problem to continues divisions among Christians. This issue started with Paul and his influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other single New Testament authors.

Answer 9

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
What I find disturbing, is that many Christians these days have faith in faith.
There is one object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
By all means, examine our faith. Find out what it is about. \
Not by watching or listening to us Christians so much, but by reading the Bible, which is our only source for all our faith (belief) and practice.

Answer 10

Grace(Holy kiss) unto you, and peace,
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why indeed. I agree beliefs should be fully scrutinized.
How would it be known to be truth if not open to scrutiny.
I am always open to scrutiny, but never open to mutiny(law).

The law is not of faith: Galatians 3:11,12 (Romans 14:23).
Hence Hebrews 11 is a hall of shame, not a hall of fame:
"these all died" and "received not the promise(e-life)".

So begin your faith-->hope-->charity(never fails) with grace,
unless you want your hope to be hopeless instead of hopeful;
And we only hope for what we do not have: eternal life, not yet.

But when we let the God shew end properly, as written,
then none will perish and we all are one will have e-life:

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.