an odd concept for people "faith"

[d e s d e m o n o]

Super Perfundo

Third, faith is for people who have nothing better to do. There's no time for it in this fast-paced world.

So the majority of the population of the world has nothing better to do than have faith in something (I'm currently thinking of religion here.)?
confused
I doubt it.
Faith can be very useful, even if it's only a tool used to keep yourself sane or at least, composed by your belief in something else, in some area of your life.
I would hardly say that there's no time for faith in 'this fast-paced world'. After all, the speed of the pace often comes from conflicting faiths, hmm?  

[SneakyPope]

Quote:

Third, faith is for people who have nothing better to do. There's no time for it in this fast-paced world.

If this is true then perhaps instead of abandoning faith we should look at reconfiguring the pace of our lives.

Also I completely disagree with your statement that faith is for people who have nothing better to do.

_Pearl.  

[Aki Yasu]

Existence of Self

Secondly, loss of faith in the government isn't neccessarily a bad thing. Last time I checked, it was the different beliefs of the different governments that were causing most of the wars in the world. If we abolished the government, people would no longer have to fight.

Not at all, If there was no government, Then we would probably have more fighting. It is human nature to first band togeather and then rule those around them. If we lack a democracy, then eventually we will have a dictatorship. its just the way we are.  

[SneakyPope]

I Completely agree with Aki. This is what i belive to be one of the fundamental flaws of anarchy. Humans possess too much greed to spend a significant amount of time in that situation. We always seek to consolidate our power with those that are likeminded.

_Pearl.  

[AbrAbraxas]

we all have faith. it is our understanding of the world we live in exemplified in our outlook. religious faith is supposed to be a supportive thing, yet in most cases it is a mandated blind faith, that people should believe what is told, that kind of faith has not power what so ever. now on the other hand a faith based on an experience of reality directed by an intelligent mind harnesses the emotional body for the purpose of the being. when we feel good about reality, good things can happen, if we are pessimistic and look only for the bad then all we will find is pain and disappointment.
in my opinion a religious faith should be backed up with study, with a full and broad understanding not only of one religion but many different ways. and also with personal experience. Faith should never be a form of escape or denial. i have faith and i have felt it distinctly before, yet i am not religious nor do i deny what happens in the world. i understand that things happen that i cannot explain and i only seek for the things that benefit me. good and bad things happen neither belong to me. all that i have is my faith, the configuration with which i engage the world.  

[Noetical]

Totle

I seem to wavering in faith due to my sudden realization of how hypocritical Christianity is. I can't speak for other religions, because I'm ignorant about them. I have a problem with how, we're preached and lectured to be good honest Christians, and then we get to go to Heaven. That's great, but isn't that simple bribing us to be good? Doesn't that mean that we're good only to get into Heaven not because we genuinly are good natured? On top of that, what exactly is Heaven? A place where all you want you get... that's fine but you're going to get tired of that... real soon. And you have to stay there for what... like forever? What can we clearly define as Heaven?

I know exactly what your talking about.. christianity is full of things like this, as many religions are but this in particular has probably bothered me the most about the way christianity is structured and unlike you i am not ignorant of other religions, ive studied them >_<.

But yeah, the idea is.. christianity promotes being kind, sharing, giving, helping others etc. bascically unselfish acts, and yet, all of this is to gain them acess to heaven, so they are somewhat being selfish in preforming all these unselfish acts, assuming getting into heaven/gods good graces is their goal.. but we can assume that it is their goal if they are proper followers of the religion considering the religion is primarily about doing what god says, being an montheiastic abrahamic religion (basically, there is only one god, he is perfect, he knows everything, he is always right, we are in his debt, etc etc) despite the various ways it can be interpreted. I am however aware that many if not most christians do good because they are good people. It is the religion in itself, the way it is stuctured that is the problem, christianity like all religions was born with and is of good intention, it seems however.. that despite good intentions, the method was/is poor. A good idea, with good intention, poorly preformed for lack of a better word atm >_< but im sure you all know what i mean. sigh  

[Smartteaser192]

Everyone is referring to Soren Kiekegaard's Leap of Faith.

Leap of Faith- is the act of believing in something without, or in spite of, available empirical evidence. Jump to something unknown and to believe in something that is absurd.

So, faith VS Reason and Religion VS Science. Is this what we are debating on? http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/faith-re.htm Look here to read more about Faith and Reason.

Faith does not contribute anything to utopianism. Sometimes, we are happy with faith individually because this gives up hope. And hope contributes to positive thinking.

So, faith relies on the judgement that the supreme being exists in the case of religion. Do you consider the atheists faithless? why or why not?  

[Niniva]

Quote:

Leap of Faith- is the act of believing in something without, or in spite of, available empirical evidence. Jump to something unknown and to believe in something that is absurd.

No....they aren't. Kirkegaurd, aside from being wrong most of the time, is not someone most people refer to anyway.

Besides that we are not talking about a leap of faith we are talking about HAVING faith here.

Faith, as in acceptance of something as true without the plausibility of proof.

Your definition of faith is just quite simply incorrect, you describe a flawed definition of believing in something, but belief just expresses something that occurs just before knowledge....faith implies there is no real knowledge to be had in the first place, but that you are still convinced of truth.  

[Noetical]

durrypoo

Super Perfundo

Third, faith is for people who have nothing better to do. There's no time for it in this fast-paced world.

I have to strongly disagree with this. Faith goes beyond religion, faith includes all kind of personal beliefs. There is place for it in this world: being optimistic about how situations we can control is a matter of faith, believing in ourselves being able to win at a certain competition is also a matter of faith, trusting in our friends being true is also a matter of faith. Also, religious faith(I'm assuming you reffered to it in your reply) is not for people who have nothing better to do, some people are very hard working, or very good persons because their religious faiths tell them to be that way. I'm not religious, but I'm a person who lives with faith.

i think you have confused Faith, with Hope.

You HOPE things will go well or not go bad.
You don't blindly believe things will go well or go bad absolutely based on nothing.

and trust is not the same as Faith either, you are again, not blindly believing in something absolutely which cant be proved, but instead you are choosing to risk something based on a voluntarily placed belief.
for example:

"i am going to choose to trust you in our relationship, not because im not open to the possibility that you wont cheat on me, i know you might, but i am simply placing my hope in you, rendering me vulnerable because I recognize the lack of sense in worrying about that which has not happened yet when it is detrimental to that which i am trying to achieve, and I wish to be happy within and outside of our relationship"  

[Noetical]

himura hatake

how manypeople these days have lost faith and not just to their dieties but to each other and to goverments the world is ending for loss of faith kinda sad if faith is lost then what hope of utopia do we have.....?

Would you care to explain why faith is necessary for Utopia...? -_-
*SIGH*  

[Niniva]

moyga

durrypoo

Super Perfundo

Third, faith is for people who have nothing better to do. There's no time for it in this fast-paced world.

I have to strongly disagree with this. Faith goes beyond religion, faith includes all kind of personal beliefs. There is place for it in this world: being optimistic about how situations we can control is a matter of faith, believing in ourselves being able to win at a certain competition is also a matter of faith, trusting in our friends being true is also a matter of faith. Also, religious faith(I'm assuming you reffered to it in your reply) is not for people who have nothing better to do, some people are very hard working, or very good persons because their religious faiths tell them to be that way. I'm not religious, but I'm a person who lives with faith.

i think you have confused Faith, with Hope.

You HOPE things will go well or not go bad.
You don't blindly believe things will go well or go bad absolutely based on nothing.

and trust is not the same as Faith either, you are again, not blindly believing in something absolutely which cant be proved, but instead you are choosing to risk something based on a voluntarily placed belief.
for example:

"i am going to choose to trust you in our relationship, not because im not open to the possibility that you wont cheat on me, i know you might, but i am simply placing my hope in you, rendering me vulnerable because I recognize the lack of sense in worrying about that which has not happened yet when it is detrimental to that which i am trying to achieve, and I wish to be happy within and outside of our relationship"

And you are unjustly confusing the terms belief and faith as though they are interchangeable when they clearly are not.

Hope Faith and Belief are confusing terms that have settled meaning so he can use hope however he wants though just as you wrote:

"i am going to choose to trust you in our relationship, not because im not open to the possibility that you wont cheat on me, i know you might, but i am simply placing my hope in you, rendering me vulnerable because I recognize the lack of sense in worrying about that which has not happened yet when it is detrimental to that which i am trying to achieve, and I wish to be happy within and outside of our relationship"

You could replace the word hope in that statement with both the word Faith and the word Believe and it would not falsify the statement at all. But are we saying different things or changing the meaning of the sentence at all? Or perhaps missusing one of those words?

Tell me why you use faith and belief as though they are the same things. To me, they clearly seem different. Indeed even with your beloved gripping of certainty about definitions those two words are not defined the same at all, so why do you use them interchangably?