(January 30, 2017 at 2:17 pm)SteveII Wrote: 1. I think you are misusing the word 'faith'. Faith is having confidence in something, and in this context, confidence that God is/will _____. So, how could a confidence in God be the rational basis for belief in God? Perhaps you mean someone's belief about God. But if that is the case, the sentence is circular: a persons belief in God is a rational basis for belief in God. I think most people have tangible reasons for their belief.
I don't agree that faith is merely synonymous with "confidence", it has far too many additional connotations not the least of which is that faith is also characterized as a gift, a supernatural grace from God. In a more common sense I think of it as belief beyond the evidence, that at some point there is a break with proportioning belief with evidence and one takes a leap of faith and just assumes the truth of what is claimed despite not having proof.
The problem I have with this is that up until that point believers are fine with invoking the need for proof and proportionate evidence (especially when debating believers of rival religions), but then suddenly pull out the faith card once their reasoning fails them and they need some justification to accept belief in a reality they can't arrive at without invoking faith. So you'll see a Christian criticize the Qur'an for its contradictions, but when similar criticisms are made about the Bible, the "evidence mode" gets switched off in their minds and we're back to "faith mode" as there is no length a Christian will not go to in attempting to square the circle in claiming there is no contradiction, because regardless of the criticism (and the evidence supporting it), the conclusion has already been reached in advance thanks to faith based belief which precludes one from entertaining the possibility that they are wrong about the belief system that demands faith in the first place.
(January 30, 2017 at 2:17 pm)SteveII Wrote: 2. If you believe Christianity to be true, that entails believing that Christianity is the only path to God. Following that train of logic, how does that equate to 'arrogance'?
It equates to arrogance when you de-mystify the religion and view it from the perspective of it not being true, but just a bunch of religious leaders (whether it be pastors, priests, whatever) imposing a myth-based worldview on children and others, having their entire position predicated on the presumption that the human race owes its adherence to their views without offering any reasons for belief proportionate to the extraordinary claims they make. This arrogance was taken so far that you were once considered unfit to live if you spoke against what were considered the correct religious views. Such people were tortured and executed as heretics under both Catholic and Protestant governments of the past.
