Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 28, 2024, 5:06 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 2 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Faith is a measure of irrationality
#1
Faith is a measure of irrationality
You've heard people say it before, "I have faith" or so and so has a lot of faith. What does that mean really? What is having a lot of faith?

It would seem that having a lot of faith is the act of tenatiously rejecting reality. You walk out your house without an umbrella even though you've got big gray clouds in the sky. Is this faith?

If I keep telling myself that something unlikely to happen will, does that constitute faith?

When does faith become stupid? When do adults take responsibility for their own lives? Does someone who believes they can walk on water have more faith than somone who believes they will pass a test?

I remember being in a restuarant and a man came in and said he was a man of faith. He had an incredible sense of superiority. It's sad that a bold statement like that can be said with such gusto in 2014.

I think faith is directly proportional to irrationality.
8000 years before Jesus, the Egyptian god Horus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life."
Reply
#2
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
(June 24, 2014 at 2:10 am)BlackMason Wrote: You've heard people say it before, "I have faith" or so and so has a lot of faith. What does that mean really? What is having a lot of faith?

It would seem that having a lot of faith is the act of tenatiously rejecting reality. You walk out your house without an umbrella even though you've got big gray clouds in the sky. Is this faith?

If I keep telling myself that something unlikely to happen will, does that constitute faith?

When does faith become stupid? When do adults take responsibility for their own lives? Does someone who believes they can walk on water have more faith than somone who believes they will pass a test?

I remember being in a restuarant and a man came in and said he was a man of faith. He had an incredible sense of superiority. It's sad that a bold statement like that can be said with such gusto in 2014.

I think faith is directly proportional to irrationality.

Hebrews 1;11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Reply
#3
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
Yeah sure, I was seeding off of that.
8000 years before Jesus, the Egyptian god Horus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life."
Reply
#4
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
Quote:Hebrews 1;11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
translation- faith is wishing.....really, really hard.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#5
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
The question is: How should I determine what to have faith in?

Use evidence?
Whatever feels right?
Whatever makes me feel better about myself?
Whatever my parents/preacher tell me?
The belief that promises the greatest reward?
Reply
#6
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
Religion done properly satisfies all those criteria.
They're just brain washing cults sold wholesale.
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
Reply
#7
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
Quote:Hebrews 1;11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

First off, it isn't Hebrews 1:11, but Hebrews 11:1.

'Confidence in what we hope for' is why lotto players can't make the rent.

'Assurance about what we see.' How is this any different from a drug-induced hallucination?

Sorry, mate, but I've had it up to HERE with Hebrews 11:1. Your lot consistently trot this out as if it were the final word in favour of faith. Well, prepare yourself for a shock: it isn't. Faith is simply a way of convincing yourself that a particular proposition is true, without have to go through all the tedium of actually thinking about it.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Reply
#8
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
I've got family members who are religious. They aren't stupid. They simply wall their native intelligence and natural curiosity off when it comes to a certain topic or three. They are content in those topics to accept received "wisdom" without asking the right questions, probably because of the same fear I felt when I was a believer losing my own faith.

Reply
#9
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
Favorite quote time!


Faith is being persuaded and fully committed in trust, involving a confident belief in the truth, value, and trustworthiness of God. When it comes to Christianity, 'faith' is defined by three separate but vitally connected aspects (especially from Luther and Melancthon onwards): notitia (informational content), assensus (intellectual assent), and fiducia (committed trust). So faith is the sum of having the information, being persuaded of its truthfulness, and trusting in it. To illustrate the three aspects: "Christ died for ours sins" (notitia); "I am persuaded that Christ died for our sins" (notitia + assensus); "I deeply commit in trust to Christ who I am persuaded died for our sins" (notitia + assensus + fiducia). Only the latter constitutes faith, on the Christian view.

Consequently, notitia and fiducia without assensus is blind and therefore not faith. This shipwrecks the egregious canard that faith is merely a blind leap. Faith goes beyond reason—i.e., into the arena of trust—but never against reason. From the Enlightenment onwards, faith has been subject to constant attempts at redefining it into the realm of the irrational or irrelevant (e.g., Kant's noumenal category); but all such attempts are built on irresponsible straw man caricatures that bear no resemblance to faith as held under the Christian view: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.
Reply
#10
RE: Faith is a measure of irrationality
(June 24, 2014 at 2:10 am)BlackMason Wrote: You've heard people say it before, "I have faith" or so and so has a lot of faith. What does that mean really? What is having a lot of faith?

...
I remember being in a restuarant and a man came in and said he was a man of faith. He had an incredible sense of superiority. It's sad that a bold statement like that can be said with such gusto in 2014.

I think faith is directly proportional to irrationality.
In my experience the statement tends to say more about the person making it than the subject, for example; I've been described as being "very christian, I must have a lot of faith..." on numerous occasions. This always results in a rather awkward silence as I resist the urge to laugh. However the people who make this type of statement are invariably the more religious types who talk first, think later (if ever) they're also the usual suspects when someone is out to twist the system to their own ends.
Quote:I don't understand why you'd come to a discussion forum, and then proceed to reap from visibility any voice that disagrees with you. If you're going to do that, why not just sit in front of a mirror and pat yourself on the back continuously?
-Esquilax

Evolution - Adapt or be eaten.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  [Serious] For former Christians only, why did you leave your faith? Jehanne 159 12415 January 16, 2023 at 7:36 am
Last Post: h4ym4n
  A Believer's Thoughts on Faith rlp21858 168 11008 July 9, 2022 at 3:43 pm
Last Post: Jehanne
  3 reasons for Christians to start questionng their faith smax 149 57990 December 4, 2021 at 10:26 am
Last Post: Ketzer
  Faith is Feelings zwanzig 44 4273 February 28, 2021 at 1:47 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  What will win the god wars? Faith, Fantasy, Facts, or God? Greatest I am 98 5749 December 28, 2020 at 12:01 pm
Last Post: Greatest I am
  why faith fails Drich 43 4288 January 23, 2020 at 12:45 am
Last Post: Haipule
  Do my parents fear that I'll leave the faith? Der/die AtheistIn 120 22778 January 14, 2018 at 2:55 am
Last Post: Abaddon_ire
  If evidence for god is in abundance, why is faith necessary? Foxaèr 181 36968 November 11, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Last Post: Cyberman
Exclamation The blind trust can lead to faith theBorg 63 8524 August 17, 2016 at 1:16 pm
Last Post: Edwardo Piet
  Charged for "faith healing" over medical care Foxaèr 18 5016 October 16, 2015 at 9:43 am
Last Post: Edwardo Piet



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)