Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2004, at 1:03:45
In reply to Re: If not, how do you get faith?, posted by rayww on November 4, 2004, at 22:49:02
Good afternoon rayww.
>When was the end all of faith supposed to be that God exists?
Oh, that is just my stock example of a religious proposition. You can replace it with anything you like: 'god will ensure I will get through this' or whatever.
>If you haven't experienced it, it would be impossible to know. I have experienced it. I know God lives. I know faith gets things done, in a hurry sometimes. I know faith in God isn't just about God, its about doing His work, being His hands, saying His words, loving His love. It's about being there for miracles and recognizing them. It's about reverent prayer and holiness, and humility and meekness. It's about keeping the commandments and loving our neighbor as ourself. It's about life and living it to the fullest. Faith in God is all-encompasing. It's about a divine center, with focus on Christ, it's about redemption and exaltation. What isn't faith in God about?
It seems to be about a way of life, a practice, a way in which one lives ones life, a world view. I don't think I have ever had that. I always got stuck between what I believed was right and what I did because of my problems with impulse control / missing time. I guess my faith never really got cashed out in terms of action. So maybe I never really had that.
>I have never criticized anyone for their belief, have I?
You have certaintly never criticised mine. In fact you have been very patient with me.
>I don't think you should assume that people who believe in God don't have what to base their belief on.
I guess that I do think that 'belief' in god is more properly called 'faith' because we can't access the right kind of evidence to have a justified belief that either 'god exists' or 'god does not exist' is true. It is not more rational to believe one way or the other (unless you particularly liked Pascal's wager). I know that I went through some of the arguments for the existence of god on this board and critiqued them rationally. But that doesn't show that god doesn't exist. There are also many arguments that god doesn't exist. But then we could go through them and critique them rationally as well. I guess that I think that at the end of the day the arguments stack up fairly evenly and so it is not more rational to believe one way or the other.
But then there is still faith.
I don't think that faith is second best to belief, either. I am still thinking about whether it improves vision, or just adds a componant.I know, how about both?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:408646
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20040914/msgs/411982.html