RE: Theists, what does faith mean to you?
August 7, 2015 at 4:57 pm
(This post was last modified: August 7, 2015 at 5:42 pm by Catholic_Lady.)
(August 7, 2015 at 4:37 pm)Pyrrho Wrote:(August 7, 2015 at 4:07 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:
But I don't need other people telling me that he does to know he does. It's not like I wouldn't know it unless others had told me. If we were the only 2 people on earth, and there was no one else to "affirm" that he loves me, I would still have just as much faith that he does.
...
The point is that you can tell that your husband loves you from the same things that other people could use to determine that he loves you, by seeing his actions. That is, there is actual, real evidence that he loves you. Anyone who is present can see how he treats you. It is not something hidden or mysterious or nonexistent. It is real behaviors that anyone could see if they were in the right place at the right time. You judge that he loves you based on such things, that other people could see if they were present. And, if it were needed (though it hardly matters whether anyone else believes he loves you or not), you could point to his behaviors and thus provide evidence of his love. It is not a matter of blind faith, it is a matter about which you have evidence. That is what distinguishes the example of your husband's love for you from the case regarding the existence of God. You don't have anything real to show for God, but you do have real things to point to for your husband's love.
I guess I just don't agree that personal evidence I can't necessarily show to anyone else, shouldn't count as evidence to me.
Nonetheless, there are things I could say to other people... things that have happened to me, etc, but people could easily not believe what I tell them, or not think they mean anything. They'd still walk away not believing in God. And I wouldn't blame them. There's no way I can show people my entire life and all my thoughts and all my experiences, which all contribute to why I believe what I believe.
Likewise, it's my entire experience with my husband that makes me believe he loves me. If someone asked me how I knew he did, I could say things like "well.... he respects me." or "He bought me flowers" or "he sacrificed something really big so that my life could be better."
... but those are still not a full account by any means, and describing a full account of an entire experience would be impossible. A skeptic of love and marriage can just as easily say those things don't mean anything, and that other people's husbands have done the same thing and then cheated on them and left them, etc. You'd have to literally be in my shoes.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh
