RE: Question about "faith"
September 18, 2020 at 8:14 am
(This post was last modified: September 18, 2020 at 8:25 am by Angrboda.)
(September 17, 2020 at 11:18 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: I think this whole debate gets resolved if someone can show me one legitimate Christian resource that says faith is an emotion or blind belief. Quote the Pope or something, no more anecdotes.
John 20:29 ESV
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Now one could say that Jesus here meant, blessed are those who believed based upon prior witness rather than having seen me in the flesh, and it's possible he meant that. The difficulty is in determining whether or not a person has blind faith or has a faith based upon induction from his experiences. Typically, the complete reasons for a person's belief are not stated and it is hard to see what a person would have to say in order to be certain that their faith was blind. Perhaps if they said something to the effect that they believe based upon nothing at all in their prior experience, though such an expression would be rare. I suspect such expressions do exist, and given that they should be expected to be rare rather than nonexistent, it rather suggests that you are simply exploiting this fact to suggest something which may not be true. For example, if Jesus had meant that blind faith is good, how would you show that the other meaning was not meant, or falsify the hypothesis that he is suggesting something other than blind faith? If you have no way to know, then you're just playing on the ambiguity to make a bald assertion. As such, your assertion would hold no water. So, how would you falsify the faith as trust/confidence hypothesis?
(September 17, 2020 at 4:14 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: Christians often distinguish faith from presumption. Faith is virtuous, presumption is not.
Interesting. What distinction do Christians draw between these two?
(September 17, 2020 at 5:41 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: I would trust a surgeon with a surgery, a dentist with a cavity, and God about a supernatural flood.
I wouldnt trust a surgeon with my haircut, a dentist flying my plane, or my wife about a supernatural flood.
But if a surgeon showed me his cosmetology degree, a dentist showed me his pilot license, and my wife turned a rod into a serpent like Moses. I would be more inclined to trust them in those areas.
That is the nature of faith/trust. It is based on the merit of the proposer.
Who are the proposers in this case? What reason do we have to believe they have specific competence in the relevant area? Why do we trust or have faith in their competence?