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What do you have faith in?

What is the purpose of faith when we have evidence, is faith irrelevant if you are evidence based?

Josephine 7 June 15
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22 comments

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5

We need faith in ourselves and others. This is best when based on past performance, but I think it is necessary, nonetheless.

tioteo Level 8 June 15, 2018
3

Faith is nothing more than unsubstantiated hope. Without evidence faith is foolish; and with evidence, it's not faith.

JimG Level 8 June 15, 2018
3

Not much, any more. I wish I did; experience has taught me otherwise.

Jnei Level 8 June 15, 2018
2

The line between faith and hope are a bit fuzzy for me, and the definitions I would use for my own beliefs, but I have faith in the humanity of the world, in that humanity will someday come to use reason, compassion and understanding for some semblance of peace. (I know, far fetched!) I have faith that the pendulum swings to one extreme and then to another and somehow eventually will settle into some middle-ground. (Again, naive maybe, but I'm more mellow in my old age, so it could happen!) And I have faith that chaos eventually finds order and harmony.

2

for now = gravity, but that may change.

2

Myself.
My wife.
Zorak the Wonder Dog.

2

Death and taxes goes the old adage.

2

I have faith in you

Amisja Level 8 June 15, 2018

@Josephine Because you are an intelligent person and a nurse.

@Josephine Had to check then in case I'd misspelled it 😉

1

Depends if you are using faith as a noun or a proper noun.

1

I feel it is important to discern the difference between faith and belief. Faith is internal and unquantifiable, belief is an external projection which expects an outcome

1

Faith without evidence is folly

1

Gravity, Theory of Relativity, and understanding the exponential function are my big three currently. That could change with further evidence.

@Josephine I think in some respects yes and in others no. I can understand the laws and theories of science but I have many quibbles and little knowledge of the philosophical thinking and wordage things.

1
1

Myself, the universe, whatever force it is that looks after me. The power of love. The power of will. Magic. The power of persistence and perseverance.

1

As the placebo affect shows, what we believe affects real events.
We are co-creators of our own universe..making our own reality.

What you believe, or fear, comes to you, since your focus on it brings it into being for you.

“Consciousness is fundamental and matter is derived from consciousness." – Max Planck, theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics

1

Faith has two dictionary definitions. One is "trust or reasonable expectation based on past experience or knowledge". Or more simply, trust. I trust people who have proven themselves to be trustworthy, for example.

The other dictionary definition is "Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof". That's religious faith, the near opposite of the other, colloquial definition. It is affording belief to a thing without requiring that it be substantiated. I have none of that kind of faith, and haven't for a very long time.

@Matias Citation needed. My tribe generally cited "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" when teaching what faith was. The ONLY time they ever conflated it with "trust" was when justifying it to skeptics.

In any case I would have said that to skeptics back in the day, too, because I had no willingness to admit it was confirmation bias and hope more than actual experience or knowledge. When the religious can demonstrate how their beliefs are distinct from their imagination then we can maybe have a conversation about whether there's intersubjective legitimacy (or any other kind) in connecting religious faith with cause-and-effect experience.

@Matias Nice false equivalency. Money for example is not merely an abstraction that we arbitrarily agree exists, it is an agreed to medium of exchange used for real-world purposes.

God on the other hand has no practical purpose. He's just a shibboleth to signify what religious tribe you belong to. I can find peace of mind, freedom from the dread of death, purpose, meaning, moral conviction, etc just fine without the agreeing to the shared fiction of god. In contrast, just try to leave the store with a loaf of bread without paying for it because you don't believe in money or the government.

@Matias Oh good grief. I've already told you I came OUT OF religion and was deeply involved in it; I'm hardly ignorant of it. I know that religion was in the prescientific era a "sort of OS" for societies and that secular institutions are a recent achievement. That's kind of the whole point. Religion is the past, reason is the future.

And once again you have not addressed my actual points. If I can find peace of mind, freedom from the dread of death, purpose, meaning, and moral conviction without god ... then in what sense is he a necessary entity to either explain my existence or predict outcomes?

@Matias Reread anything I've written and you will not find hostility to a single believer. You will find simple disagreement and the recognition of the human suffering caused directly and indirectly by religious ideation and a certain advocacy for discarding religion as no longer necessary or even particularly useful. That said ... individuals are welcome to knock themselves out if they like being religious. I never said otherwise, and I have religious friends, BTW. Many, many people are wonderful in spite of their religion.

This is the same conflation that many believers have. Fail to affirm and honor their belief-system and they claim persecution and hatred and hostility and, in general, an existential threat. These are just conversations and debates. To those who take up offense on these matters I say, If you can't stand the heat, you can get out of the kitchen. No one is holding a gun to your head to make you be here.

@Matias I have in-laws by prior marriage who are (1) religious and (2) altruistic, kind, and charitable "and so on". I just don't make the mistake of conflating association and cause. In fact, I would say they have transcended religion. This is not hostility, it is simply an observation. Their pastor when I got to know them was an asshat, and when he was replaced by the denominational powers that be with a gasp woman I quickly found out how -- shall we say -- traditional many of my in-law's fellow parishoners were. I won't say passive-aggressive, misogynistic, and machiavellian, because that would be hostile, now, wouldn't it? I mean, we durst not ever call a spade a spade if that spade is a religious spade, right?

Since I've known good people in and out of religion there's no reason to think simplistically of religion as a source of goodness. Can people understand and practice it in a way that promotes goodness? Sure. Can it promote goodness? Sure. Does it have a dark underbelly? More often than not.

1

I think we can live without Faith, and most of us are, because faith has become irrelevant to me anyway in the context of religion and spirituality.

In the other context of belief and the facts figures of empirical evidence, there is really only science and maths. Boring but true..IMO.

0

I have faith in yin and yang. That opposing forces occur with all change thus limiting its' duration and intensity. This happens with all things in life and the varying intensities, durations, and frequency all happen at different times. Sometimes you get a bunch of ups and no downs ... sometimes the opposite. But you always know the other side's coming and you can prepare for it or look forward to it.

0

That Lawyers and politicians lie a lot, that the earth is the rock from the Sun, that my cats will come running when I say here kitty well mostly because they know I have treats.

azzow2 Level 9 June 15, 2018
0

For right now, I only have faith in myself. I've learned not to expect much from others, cause when you need them most they have seemed to evaporate into thin air. So in the end you only have you!

0

I have faith in the American voter will come out on November 6th & hobble this President with that thin piece of paper called the Constitution. Will we take up arms against him if he tries to cancel the election? I will wait for instructions from my Democratic leaders to advise me. I will drive to Washington to storm the White House if he tries. I am locked & loaded. He is why the 2nd Amendment has my support.

0

Faith (belief without evidence) as I value truth, (things that can be demonstrated) I work to avoid paying any heed to assertions or beliefs founded on faith.

Is faith irrelevant? Irrelevant to truth.

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