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 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:22 pm
I've been thinking about faith a lot lately, and I've come to some conclusions. Lots of people 'put' faith into a belief system, but I don't think that's how it really works. If you really have faith in something, you don't just believe it, you know it to be true, deep down inside yourself. Therefore I think faith cannot be taught, because no one can really teach you what you already know to be true.
Gah, it's so hard to put what I'm thinking into words, but I hope someone understands at least an inkling of what I'm trying to say.
I don't know what my religion is, but through my faith I know the following things:
The universe exists.
There is a God.
He hears our prayers.
People are inherently good.
However, all people also have sin and can be easily mislead.
Belief in Jesus or any other specific diety does not alone lead to salvation.
There are things that happen that cannot be explained by science alone.
People should be good to one another.
Life is sacred.
Love is very, VERY important.
God loves people.
Beyond these things, I don't really know anything for certain. I was wondering what other people think about faith, or if anyone else would like to share theirs. This isn't meant to be an argument about the preceding statements and I'm not trying to convert anyone, but I don't mind debating any of these points.
*added a few more things to the list
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:26 am
Yeah, I agree with you, except that faith can be taught and is.
Religious families will teach their children the "right" religion, and thus they will believe it and hold it true (most of the time).
As for my case, it's still the same, but in a different way. My parents wanted us to think for ourselves, to choose our own way of thinking. Because of that, me and my brother taught ourselves our faith. In which we have none.
We just don't care about what happens at death. He and I just were never instilled a belief and so I guess we considered it to be unimportant.
Even now, whenever I try to think about afterlife, it's just too subjective, too personal. I wasn't taught which conclusion to believe, so I just don't believe any of them.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:49 pm
Kilehye
Yeah, I agree with you, except that faith can be taught and is.
Religious families will teach their children the "right" religion, and thus they will believe it and hold it true (most of the time).
As for my case, it's still the same, but in a different way. My parents wanted us to think for ourselves, to choose our own way of thinking. Because of that, me and my brother taught ourselves our faith. In which we have none.
We just don't care about what happens at death. He and I just were never instilled a belief and so I guess we considered it to be unimportant.
Even now, whenever I try to think about afterlife, it's just too subjective, too personal. I wasn't taught which conclusion to believe, so I just don't believe any of them.
I care about what happens at death, but I don't pretend to know anything about it (notice it is not mentioned in any of the tenets I listed). And I agree, young minds can be influenced to believe things to a certain degree, but many question these things as they grow older. I find it hard to believe you have faith in absolutely nothing, though. You believe in your own existence, right?
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:13 pm
I'm not sure what you mean by believing in my own existence. I live and will die like everyone and everything. I don't even know what to think about souls or spirituality anymore, I suppose I like thinking and looking at things realistically and scientifically.
It's hard to put in words.. I guess I'm not saying I don't believe in anything, and yet I don't. I consider things, I just don't care to think about it. Anything's a possibility when it comes to faith, and there are so many different ways of thinking, I can't decide on one.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:51 pm
I have my own beliefs as well and I believe what I believe and don't worry about what others think of those beliefs. I know in my heart what I beleive is true and yet I still question whether or not my own beliefs are truely my own or what I was tuaght growing up and what was forced upon me in middle school.((I grew up baptist and went to a christian middle school)). I have chosen to discard all religion and simply live my life one day at a time and build my beliefs again from the ground up according to what I truely believe. So far all I have is that I believe in one greater power over all others and that when we die something happens, but it is still indeterminate to me exactly what I believe happens.
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:10 pm
faith is blind. i do not believe in the christian god, though i do believe in multiple gods, all of whom communicate with me, usually on the astral plane. Cuchulainn has for one provben his existance to me and several friends on the physical plane by ridding our homes of some rather mischievious spirits, most of whom meant serious harm to us.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:14 pm
DR490N faith is blind. i do not believe in the christian god, though i do believe in multiple gods, all of whom communicate with me, usually on the astral plane. Cuchulainn has for one provben his existance to me and several friends on the physical plane by ridding our homes of some rather mischievious spirits, most of whom meant serious harm to us. If faith is blind, than how can you be sure of your own beliefs?
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:43 pm
Faith is not blind, it is choosing to believe in that which cannot be seen, sensed or proven. It is true that seeing is not believing- the moment you have solid, factual knowledge, limitations and form, faith tends to vanish. Do i believe in a God? Yes. I am smart enough to know that there are things in this world that I will never know, thus I never deny the deliefs of others. This puts a great deal of weight on the phrase "I don't believe." If you just don't care about a certain God(s), that is differnt than "not believing" or "denying" the existance of a God(s). While i WILL be skeptical of certain beliefs that are outside my sphere of spiritual experience, I approach all with an open mind.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:20 pm
~Serra Angel~ DR490N faith is blind. i do not believe in the christian god, though i do believe in multiple gods, all of whom communicate with me, usually on the astral plane. Cuchulainn has for one provben his existance to me and several friends on the physical plane by ridding our homes of some rather mischievious spirits, most of whom meant serious harm to us. If faith is blind, than how can you be sure of your own beliefs? because i've been there and here many times, i've had others confirm things to me that i have not told them, and i've had gods communicate with me on the physical plane with others around observing. CuChulainn even helped a few friends of mine get some darker entities out of their homes.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:47 pm
So you're saying you believe this stuff because you have proof.
However, you have to have faith in the existence of the physical world to be able to count these things as proof. It could be argued that nothing around you really exists, including yourself. So to some extent, you must at least have faith in something if you believe anything at all.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:41 pm
it cannot be argued with any real sense of logic that the physical world does not exist, because were it not truly in existance, neither would i be.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:50 pm
DR490N it cannot be argued with any real sense of logic that the physical world does not exist, because were it not truly in existance, neither would i be. ...Isn't that exactly her point? <3Rufu
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:04 pm
No, there have been arguements made that the universe doesn't actually exist, based on logic. Now, I don't agree with them at all, but what I'm trying to say is that if there are people who don't believe that the physical world they percieve is real, then it is worth my mentioning that I believe in it.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:49 pm
except that it's an absolutely absurd concept. how can anything exist if nothing exists?
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:01 pm
Once again, you've hit the nail right on the head.
Edit:: On accident. <3Rufu
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