July 5, 2011
-
Faith
When I tackle controversial topics here on xanga there are people that just hate faith. Faith is evidence of things not yet seen. They want to prove thier point by showing things seen. It confounds the wisdom of this world and drives the unbelieving crazy. I will hold to my faith in Jesus Christ with everything I have.What does your faith look like?
Family: 4thFamily Fued Question: Name a type of pet.
Comments (41)
I personally don’t hate faith. Everyone has to take things on faith, but some people just won’t accept that they do. They say they rely exclusively on reason, but I feel quite sure that they themselves have not discovered all the scientific evidence on which they claim to build their perfectly logical worldviews. They must have faith that the scientists who did the experiments and examined the evidence not only did the procedures correctly, but also drew the correct conclusions from them. Even absolute truth can be misinterpreted because human beings just aren’t as smart as we think we are.
Interesting topic. Like you stated,”faith is the substance hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”. So it is difficult to explain it any better than that.
Name a type of pet: A beagle(the best kind of pet for us)
As a rational skeptic, I don’t have any faith in the religious sense of the term. I do have faith in things like trusting my friends, which is a different thing. (I’ve always found it annoying that we have to use the same word for two very different concepts, and others I’ve discussed this with have said so as well.)
Faith came to me from God. I knew it the moment it happened. I was memorizing a verse of scripture (recommended by a friend who was trying to help me with problems in my life). Romans 10:9-10. Suddenly, I knew that was true and that I had believed in the way that that verse was talking about…..I knew! Ever since, even when I’ve wanted to run from God or was angry about the way things were going, that faith has stayed with me. It is mine. I am His and He is mine – forever.
Faith is something I’m not 100% sure I’m capable of having faith. I have a strong desire to believe, but I’m not sure I actually do. I know what I feel drawn to, but I always ALWAYS doubt everything.
I’m not sure I can measure my faith since it changes. I struggle just like everyone else on the planet some days it is strong sometimes I wonder if everything I beleive in is true or not or if it’s just some mystery never to be solved.
kittie.
a dog
yes, I would call my faith,”if I could just touch the hem of his gown; I will be healed.”
i try to avoid blind faith.. i believe in logical things, and also proven things.. at the same time, i believe that proof are not limited only from empirical or seen/observable things..
My faith isn’t really about thinking; it’s moreso about feeling. I don’t just believe in YHWH and Yahshua because I randomly want to, or because it makes me “feel better.” I can feel them with me, their presences, all the time. Sometimes I’ve felt it so hard, I’ve just cried my eyes out. The feeling just comes, and fills me up, and in those moments, I feel like I could jump in the air and fly across the Atlantic Ocean or something. lol. It sucks that it’s so hard to explain to nonbelievers. Oh well.
Faith is a crystalization of thought that if pure enough turns into reality.
Faith is the condition of man, and a lack of it produces humanity’s worst offenses. I am against gay marriages because we must protect the sanctity of marriage.
@The_Eyes_Of_A_Painter - Well-put.
Judging by the responses on this thread, even theists can’t agree on what they mean when they use the word “faith”. I actually think they keep it deliberately vague. Something too vague to be defined can’t be examined under a critical light, and examining a pillar of their belief system might lead a person away from it, and the most important thing in Christianity is to remain a Christian So they have a motivation to keep it vague, and not look at it too closely. I define having “faith” in something/ someone as having trust or confidence in that thing/ person. However, sometimes it’s used to mean a trust/ confidence based on evidence, and at other times it’s used to mean a trust/ confidence that’s not based on evidence. If you say that you have faith in your spouse, what you’re really saying is that you have trust/ confidence in your spouse. And that’s based on evidence. Presumably, the reason you have trust/ confidence in your spouse is because you know your spouse. You’ve spent a lot of time around them in which you’ve gathered a lot of evidence about the type of person they are. However, when i ask a Christian how they know God exists and they tell me “you’ve just got to have faith”, what they’re really saying is that i should have a confidence in his existence that’s NOT based on evidence. In that context, they’re presenting “faith” in place of evidence/ as an alternative to evidence. This meaning is what i normally think of when someone uses the word “faith” during a debate on God’s existence. It’s the way Randy7777 is using the word “faith” in this post. And it’s something that i strongly oppose on principle.
Now, some people on here (Soullightsky) seem to define “faith” as feeling God’s presence. I don’t consider that “faith”. I consider it “subjective personal experience”. “Faith” can also be used to mean a religion. Example- “Bob is a member of the Christian faith.” But that’s not how the word is being used here. It’s being used by Randy to mean belief without evidence.
hrm..
venus fly trap = pet.
My faith is in Father God and all He is.
“The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence, whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence.”
-William Harwood, Dictionary of Contemporary Mythology.
To be fair, I do not hate faith. Merely pity it. It seems a waste.
@lanney - Thanks for your imput.
@Lucy_or_Ethel - We use to have a beagle. I liked that dog so much but he wouldn’t stay at home. We had to give him to a farmer.
@TheSchizoidMan - Thanks for commenting.
@quest4god@revelife - That’s so great. I hear you loud and clear.
@hevcoh - Thanks for your honest reply.
@NightlyDreams - Thank you – I appreciate your answer.
@Babyboomerjill - I love your answer. -hem of His garment
@maniacsicko - Thanks
@soullightsky - I hear you. God is so wonderful.
@The_Eyes_Of_A_Painter - Thanks for your comment.
@RulerofMasons - Yes, Marriage must be lifted up – between a man and woman.
@zoetherat - You have me speechless.
@stephensmustang - I love your answer.
@Tokillthepanther - Your xanga name doesn’t imply Pink Panther does it?
@Randy7777 - I can not imagine a beagle unable to hunt and roam. Our Bella Beautiful Beagle with her extreme sense of smell has a good life. We live on an acreage surrounded by timber and interesting places for her to explore. She roams and hunts and with our neighbors enjoying her sweet personality it is not a problem. Bella is rather timid so she keeps as clear of trouble as she can,as she hunts,sniffs and bays. In town she’d be tied and never enjoy the fun of hunting opossum or raccoons.
@Randy7777 - It is an homage to a short story titled “The Last Act of the Circus Animals.”
@Tokillthepanther - Thanks
@Lucy_or_Ethel - That’s why we got her on a farm. We wanted the best for her.
@Randy7777 - Sounds like the right decision for sure.
faith isn’t ‘evidence’ of anything.
@Of_Ravens_And_Roses – I was giving the Biblical definition of faith
well… I guess it takes all sorts to make a world spin. But to be clear: most people don’t hate faith when you argue with them, they hate that every time you claim something, and they counterclaim, you then go, “THE BIBLE” when it isn’t even an applicable response (or at least that’s what happened when you were discussing gay civil rights the other day). Obviously that will annoy people- it’s not necessarily the bible that is annoying, its your lack of clarity concerning your understanding of it/your belief system. Just my two cents anyhow
@Randy7777 - Why? If you feel i misrepresented “faith” or what you mean by “faith”, then by all means correct me. How you defined faith is so obscure that it’s possible… but then, that’s part of the problem.
@ScarletMoth – in the conversation you mention I feel as though we come from two different world and each side doesn’t understand the other. Faith is not always logical and you want it to be. You want me to set aside the Bible and answer. I won’t because the Bible is my guide. You prove my point
thanks Randy