How can an intelligent person that respects science place any value on faith?

Question

I don't get how faith is anything more than hope.

Schneb, what about the possibility that science cannot discover what happens after we die because nothing happens after we die? I'm not being rude, I'm honestly curious.

There's nothing wrong with hope. I didn't mean for it to sound like there is. I'm sorry about that. I just don't think that "hope" is a good enough reason to start a religion, you know?

Answer 1

Best question Ive seen on this site in a long time.

The inherent problem with trying to connect the two is that by definition you cannot. You simply cannot get to a faith in God thru science or logic. Nor can you defend your faith by using science or logic.

Scientific method requires observing and describing a phenomena, forming a hypothesis to explain that phenomena, and most importantly being able to test that hypothesis through the use of properly performed experimentation. You simply cannot subject a spiritual experience to such a process. To my discredit, I have to say that I find watching people attempt this on this website entertaining but rarely enlightening.

But a scientist does not say that simply because it cannot be explained it therefore proves that it doesnt exist. It simply cannot be accepted as scientific fact. There is a difference.

From my own personal view, I am not much for having faith. I do however have experience. I have witnessed healings that I thought were not physically possible. So I have personally come to believe that there is a healing force available to us that I cannot define. Since I know and more importantly accept that I will never be able to adequately define it, I am freed from the need to. Also since I cannot adequately define it, I cannot tell someone that doesnt share my views that they are wrong.

This allows me to seek spiritual fulfillment, identify with the religion of my family, and still delight in the discoveries that the sciences have to offer.

Answer 2

Well they can't place any value on religious faith, but maybe they can place value on faith as part of the human condition. There is something to be said for optimism.. and to me faith is the ultimate optimism.. I may not have faith in any religion or god/s but I have faith in lots of things. I have faith in myself, this planet, mankind... in the form of optimism. When things are bad I have faith that they will get better with time and effort, when people kill and hurt each other I have faith that one day we will move past that, when we damage this planet I have faith that it will eventually heal itself... and that is powerful. People who are depressed lack this faith, faith in the balance of all things, they have no hope nor faith that things will work out. Faith can be good or bad, when a religious person has faith that what they believe is the only right, and everyone else is wrong it can be bad... When someone like me has faith that there is good in this world and strives to uphold it, that can be a good thing. There is value in everything, even the worst of mankind. Maybe if we all just had faith in GOODNESS life would be better. From a scientific view I place value in faith as a tool of the mind that can empower us with "mind over matter" so to speak.

Answer 3

Faith isn't hope, otherwise, there wouldn't be two words, would there? If you've never tried stir fried octopus, you won't know what it tastes like, will you. But then, do you go around denying there's such a thing as stir fried octopus? BTW, read up on Einstein and God. Or try checking out some boks like God and the New Physics or The Dancing Wu Li Masters for starters, and see what some of the gods of contemporary science are starting to conclude.

Answer 4

On faith the characteristic? Or on faith in God? I assume you mean the later. I would imagine that many intelligent people act on the characteristic of faith and make decisions without proof. I would assume that a great deal of scientific inquiry results from curiosity and a type of faith that believes that an answer is obtainable.

That said, from the latter position just because you don't place a value on faith, and others do--I don't think that invalidates their intelligence.

I know there are many posters on this forum that make their perjorative comments (i.e., believers are like children, they are unable to think critically), and I place them in the same category as the people who can't attribute morality to atheists--basically I discount what they have to say. I'm not saying you're guilty of that bias just that I wouldn't normally call into question someone's intelligence over this issue.

Answer 5

If a person is intelligent, they will explore the theological arguments for the existence of an intelligent Creator as well as the scientific - such as known laws of cause and effect, thermodynamics, etc. At some point, however, an inner reckoning and reconciliation must take place, by faith, in order to gain the spiritual eyes needed (John 3). Until a person is born again they remain blind to the spiritual workings and kingdom of God.

Answer 6

If u r intelligent then i respect u.Here is the way by which u can have faith>Recite The Wholly Quran which gave norms of science/astronomy/oceionography/space science and even how an human embryo starts in mothers womb and how many stages as well as shapes its takes more than 1456 year ago when no scientists were there to see/prove any thing.I give you just one example of the verse of quran which states that "WE made a candle (sun) in the sky and others who are enlighted by its light." WE made many earths/stars which moves on there specifaied tracks without fail" These things has not been known 1456 year before to any scientist then who told all thjis knowledge to one man who never went to any school and was unable to read and right through out of his life his name is Mohammed(peace be upon him) and this knowledge is named Quran.

Answer 7

I think most people are a combination of both. We have faith that a bus will come to pick us up at a bus stop, but that doesn't mean it will happen. The bus could be late or it could have a flat. An ideal person is relative, but I think society needs both. After all, we place faith in the rationalism of supervisors to guide us to do a good job at work.

Answer 8

Faith is knowing that something is true in spite of not seeing. Also, science actually supports the idea that God exists, the universe is young and there really was a worldwide Flood. Evolutionists also use faith in believing their theory, because empirical science only shows us that animals bring forth after their "kind", which is corroborated by Scripture. We never see any evidence of change between kinds", which evolutionists believe dogmatically (using great faith) despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For example, everybody knows that there are over 250 breeds of dog. That's a scientific fact; it's observable. It doesn't take faith to believe that. However, evolutionists want us to believe that because this is true, that automatically means that the dog and the cat had a common ancestor, something for which there is no scientific evidence, and it has never been observed. You have now moved out of the realm of science, and into faith. And for those who hold to this view dogmatically, it has now become a religion, albeit a secular one.

Answer 9

I am all about the science, and yet, I have faith. I'm a pagan and religion's important to me.

I can't really explain why I follow scientific method and reasoning, and then believe in magical beings 'in the sky', but the belief to me is real and tangible and has effects on my life and wellbeing.

When I pray, I know someone's listening - I don't have to prove it scientifically, and praying doesn't take the place of scientific method when trying to find out about this amazing place we live in and how it works.

Answer 10

I have really bad news for you, science is faith-based... faith that tools to prove hypothesis are indeed correct and reflect faithfully what is accepted scientific truth. Those scientists who are on the cutting edge have *faith* the tools they use in their work will not lead them astray. However, as it happens more often than not somebody comes along and proves the accepted norms wrong, leading to collapse of all that was built using them. Just a part of the scientific process. We have a long way to go before we know *absolute* truth, which may not even exist.