Is faith evidence?

Question

When asked why one believes in God, "faith" is often given as the response.

Is faith evidence supporting your belief?

Or is this given in lieu of evidence?

Answer 1

I think we need some definitions. Let's assume here we don't mean "faith" as a synonym for dogma/religion (E.G. "I am of the Christian Faith.") The other option is that faith is defined as essentially "a strong belief," or even a "strong feeling," which by definition does not require evidence. For example, if one has faith in the loyalty of their significant other, they will not demand evidence that their partner is not cheating, they will merely believe it.

Which brings me to my main point.... I think that faith is a little like love. How do you know when you are in love with someone? Do you demand evidence of your emotions, or is the mere experience of them enough to convince you? I think faith may be like falling in love with an idea or a belief. It becomes self-evident because it is so strongly felt. Just as you would laugh at someone who wanted scientific evidence that you loved your life partner, a faithful person might laugh at your demand of evidence for their beliefs. They feel it so strongly that it becomes a physical reality, just as love does.

Which is also to say that to some degree faith IS the belief, not the support for the belief. The belief exists, like love exists, more or less on its own merits.... I would think that trying to martial evidence for one's faith is a little like trying to make a long list of actions taken to prove your love -- it almost implies that one is lacking in that department and trying desperately to make up for that lack.

For some people, I am sure, evidence leads to faith, just as for some people the act of making love or living as husband/wife will lead to actual emotional love (e.g. arranged marriages, etc)..... but I think for just as many the love/faith comes first, and the evidence springs out of that.

Answer 2

This idea is straight out of the Book of Hebrews. It's usually quoted in some impenetrable version of the King James, but this is a pretty understandable one:

"Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen." Heb 11:1 (NJB)

It's not "evidence" in the empirical sense, because it's dealing with "realities" that are not empirically verifiable. That doesn't mean they can't be experienced, but you have to believe that your experience of realites that aren't repeatable and verifiable are nonetheless valid. If you doubt your own experience, then no other evidence can be given.

Peace and (((hugGs)))

Answer 3

No faith is not evidence.


It is a valid, if illogical, reason to believe something which is unknown.

It does not make your position stronger than someone who believes, also on faith, in something different.

It does not mean that you can contradict real evidence.

It does not change the probability that something most likely does not exist.

So.
Having faith that the moon is made of cheese is plain wrong. It has been shown to be made of rock.

Having faith that somewhere in the universe there is a moon made of cheese is valid, but no more or less foolish than having faith that somewhere there is a moon made of custard. It does not alter the fact that this is incredibly unlikely and the >99.99999% probability is that all moons are made of rock/ice/etc.

Answer 4

The only evidence one has that god/reality mirrors the contents of consciousness is a direct experience of a 'reality shift' - what believers term miracles. These experiences of synchronicity between an unconflicted state of consciousness and the material reality provide the only evidence that there is an intersection of psychology and physics that science has yet to wholly grasp. Perhaps when we have a G. U. T. it will become clear. Until then, most people will continue to personify a deity to worship.

Answer 5

Probably taken from famous: Faith is the belief in the evidence of things unseen. No need for evidence for those who have been blessed with G-d's grace. Why worry, otherwise? I leave evidence for the scientologists, real and imagined.

Answer 6

Usually in lieu, but can sometimes be used to "back up" evidence that may support it. You know, that's always been something that bothered me--Creationists love to scorn any evidence pointing toward evolution, or an older earth, constantly chastising the scientific method, and yet the moment something pops up that they can somehow meld to their idea of the world, they jump on it and say, "Look, you see?!"

Answer 7

The point is this in a nut shell. Faith is nothing without works, works is doing and living in pattern within body and mind the necessary principles and concepts that can prove those realities. Just as faith is nothing without works, since a philosophy applied is only when a philosophy has gain and is beneficial in your experience, the more you apply the more you gain a capacity to draw upon those realities that people are completely unprepared to understand because of vital issues that exist by reason of your organic limitations that you must expand and raise above, in this you gain the capacity to prove these thing within yourself.

Faith without works is dead and Faith without Gnosis is dead as well. Gnosis is direct experience, direct acquaintance, you prove these things in directly engaging them or becoming them or manifesting them in your form. It's the whole concept of Knowing Thy Self so you can even begin to know "God." But the common religious believer is completely unaware of this process because their religion is complacent and corrupted, so they are God-Central in thinking before they are even in the know about themselves. So they worship images out of a book that is allegorical and they create their boundaries to evolution of mind. Faith alone is not evidence, Faith shows that there is an ideal that is, but you have to prove it within yourself by bringing it about. Gnosis is evidence, and Gnostics would say if you would know what I do then you have to do with I have done, then you to can "know" and your evidence will be in your development and direct experience.

Answer 8

Dear Eleventy,

"Faith" is a synonym for Jesus Christ. In Revelation 19:11 we read, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war."

The rider of the white horse is the Lord Jesus Christ. One of His names is FAITHFUL and TRUE. He is the essence of "faith".

In Hebrews 11:6 we read, "6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." You see without CHRIST it is impossible to please God.

Incidently, Hebrews 11 is called the "Hall of Faith." Go through the chapter and wherever you see the word "faith", insert "Christ" there and see what you get.

This si why so many people in this forum have an incorrect understanding of the Scriptures...! One CANNOT be saved by baptism, saying a prayer, taking communion, doing good works, etc. Salvation is the work of God (Jesus Christ). And God does His work of salvation through the hearing of God's word-the Bible!

In Romans 10:17 we read, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Since Christ is the essence of faith....He is the only One that is perfectly faithful, we can read the verse as So then CHRIST cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

However, we must always take the whole Bible into account. God tells us in Ephesians 1:3-5, that those whom God chose to save were chosen before the foundation of the world.....they were elected to become saved before the world was even created. We do not know who these "elect" ones are but God also tells us that He is no respector of persons. This means that ALL of mankind stands on level ground. The most ungodly person may have been chosen by God to become saved but the Lord has not done the miracle of salvation in that person.

This is why everyone should be reading the Bible and praying that God would have mercy on them. In Lamentations 3:26 we read, "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD."

Answer 9

Faith is not evidence, and that is the problem. Believing in things without evidence is a crime against humanity.

Answer 10

Your first answer is great. Faith is not evidence and should not replace evidence. Faith is useless and harmful.