Theists, what does faith mean to you?

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't see having faith as some sort of "blind" thing, if you will. Where you just believe in something for absolutely no reason other than because you want to or just because, or whatever.  

At least it isn't for me. In the same way that I have faith that God is real, I have faith that my husband loves me. I can't show you any sort of concrete "proof" that my husband loves me, but I conclude that he does based on many aspects of our life together. Because of those things, it makes sense to me that he does.

Likewise, I conclude that God is real based on several aspects. Including a personal experience I have had, those that other people have had, based on the miracles that have been accounted for, the saints, the life of Jesus, etc... It makes sense to me. If I use the definition of faith as being a blind thing, it would take more of that type of "faith" for me not to believe in God. 

I honestly don't know what I'd be like if I wasn't a woman of faith. It's such a fundamental part of me and who I am, it's impossible to tell what I'd be like without it.

In the case of your husband, you have very good evidence that he actually exists.  You probably also have some evidence that he loves you.  My guess is, most likely, a disinterested and fair observer would recognize that you do have evidence for those ideas.

As for personal experiences for god, EVERY religion has people saying that sort of thing.  And they all have miracles attributed to them. Do you believe EVERY other religion, too?  If not, then you are being inconsistent, because even you recognize that that is worthless as evidence for every other religion that you reject.  And if it is worthless for them, it is worthless for your religion, too.

So the upshot is, you really don't have any evidence at all, and are having blind faith in your religion.

You are correct on that middle part, but I can only account for my own experiences and from what I have seen and from what makes sense to me. Likewise, another woman can come up to me after my husband has passed away and say "your husband never love you, he loves ME all along." That would not, however, take away from what I have experienced with my husband and I would still have 100% faith that he loved me rather than this woman. Though I could never prove it to her in any concrete way.