Faith a belief without knowing for sure

[SamuelTP1977]

I feel that we are not made to know if we have an afterlife or if Jesus came back from the dead, and if we did know those things there would be little mystery left to creation. We would no longer have faith and Religion would be more like a history lesson or some scientific facts. Instead we find ourselves not knowing these great mysteries and we can hope for Heaven and fear Hell, after all we really do not know for sure if we do have an after life or not.

Maybe it is better to have a belief based on a good argument that makes more sense to you along the lines of Evolution and the Bible is just a collection of stories, but I feel it is better to have hope. It is more authentic to our existence. For thousands of years humans have prayed and believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ or Allah or a different deity, so it is really going against the grain to not have any hope for an after life or belief in a higher power at all. We still have hope!

 

[quatona]

I feel that we are not made to know if we have an afterlife or if Jesus came back from the dead, and if we did know those things there would be little mystery left to creation. We would no longer have faith and Religion would be more like a history lesson or some scientific facts. Instead we find ourselves not knowing these great mysteries and we can hope for Heaven and fear Hell, after all we really do not know for sure if we do have an after life or not.

Maybe it is better to have a belief based on a good argument that makes more sense to you along the lines of Evolution and the Bible is just a collection of stories, but I feel it is better to have hope. It is more authentic to our existence. For thousands of years humans have prayed and believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ or Allah or a different deity, so it is really going against the grain to not have any hope for an after life or belief in a higher power at all. We still have hope!

For some mysterious reason, in the second paragraph you suddenly left out the "fear" part that was part of the equation in your first paragraph.

On another note, I don´t think that what I should hope for an what I should fear is determined by majority vote.

 

[Davian]

I feel that we are not made to know if we have an afterlife or if Jesus came back from the dead, and if we did know those things there would be little mystery left to creation. We would no longer have faith and Religion would be more like a history lesson or some scientific facts. Instead we find ourselves not knowing these great mysteries and we can hope for Heaven and fear Hell, after all we really do not know for sure if we do have an after life or not.

Maybe it is better to have a belief based on a good argument that makes more sense to you along the lines of Evolution and the Bible is just a collection of stories, but I feel it is better to have hope. It is more authentic to our existence. For thousands of years humans have prayed and believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ or Allah or a different deity, so it is really going against the grain to not have any hope for an after life or belief in a higher power at all. We still have hope!

Religion as a comfort blanket, because other people have found comfort in it. Not a very intellectually satisfying argument for religion.

 

[SkyWriting]

For some mysterious reason, in the second paragraph you suddenly left out the "fear" part that was part of the equation in your first paragraph.On another note, I don´t think that what I should hope for an what I should fear is determined by majority vote.

Yes, like we fear loosing our eyesight so we follow the correct method for
jump starting a car, and we fear pavement so we only get out of the car
after it stops moving. Fear is a healthy thing. You are free to hook up
battery cables without a vote.

 

[Soyeong]

We can only have faith and hope as far as we have reason to. Faith in God isn't about agreeing to the historicity of the resurrection, but in what Jesus accomplished through it. It's about having a conduct that demonstrates that we trust God to provide for our needs and to lead us each day into doing what is right.

 

[SkyWriting]

I feel that we are not made to know if we have an afterlife or if Jesus came back from the dead, and if we did know those things there would be little mystery left to creation. We would no longer have faith and Religion would be more like a history lesson or some scientific facts. Instead we find ourselves not knowing these great mysteries and we can hope for Heaven and fear Hell, after all we really do not know for sure if we do have an after life or not.

Maybe it is better to have a belief based on a good argument that makes more sense to you along the lines of Evolution and the Bible is just a collection of stories, but I feel it is better to have hope. It is more authentic to our existence. For thousands of years humans have prayed and believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ or Allah or a different deity, so it is really going against the grain to not have any hope for an after life or belief in a higher power at all. We still have hope!

And it wouldn't work anyway.

29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if
someone should rise from the dead.’”

 

[GrimKingGrim]

Yes, like we fear loosing our eyesight so we follow the correct method for
jump starting a car, and we fear pavement so we only get out of the car
after it stops moving. Fear is a healthy thing. You are free to hook up
battery cables without a vote.

Um ... that's not fear. That's education and common knowledge/sense and awareness. We're know that getting out a moving car can cause damage to ourselves and property, so we don't do that. That doesn't equate to fear, more like using our common sense and education for self preservation.

 

[quatona]

Yes, like we fear loosing our eyesight so we follow the correct method for
jump starting a car, and we fear pavement so we only get out of the car
after it stops moving. Fear is a healthy thing. You are free to hook up
battery cables without a vote.

If there is a point to this beyond mere preaching, please expand on it.

 

[David Colin Gould]

So many people spending their lives hoping for an afterlife. Do they spend their afterlives hoping for an afterafterlife?

 

[SkyWriting]

If there is a point to this beyond mere preaching, please expand on it.

Don't be a fraidy-cat. Buck up.

 

[SkyWriting]

So many people spending their lives hoping for an afterlife. Do they spend their afterlives hoping for an afterafterlife?

Does a fish regret water? People understand that this world is not the correct one for us.

 

[sahjimira]

If there is a point to this beyond mere preaching, please expand on it.

You probably will never understand faith intellectually.

 

[sahjimira]

I read the bible intellectually and also after I was saved. World of difference

 

[SamuelTP1977]

I feel fear protects us and keeps us from doing something not wise or unsafe. However about being an individual, it is important that you believe what makes sense to you, but don't count the afterlife out, there still could be an afterlife. If there is a hell, I got a feeling going there or who goes there is based more on how you acted in life not what dogma you believed, but then again I don't know and I do find myself hoping for Heaven.

I do like reading the new testament and find Jesus to be good guy with good judgment, so I do hope to meet him and thank him for the wonderful opportunities I have had. I feel lucky to not be in Syria or at the end of the world from Global Warming, which are all man made disasters which are going to need a miracle at some point to be fixed. I think in another 50 years things are going to heat up you watch.

 

[quatona]

You probably will never understand faith intellectually.

So?
Btw. I think I do understand the connection faith-hope (as described in the OP) quite fine. It´s just that I see no point in hoping for something that I don´t find attractive.

 

[GrimKingGrim]

I read the bible intellectually and also after I was saved. World of difference

Hmph. What do you find intellectual about it?

 

[Davian]

Yes, like we fear loosing our eyesight so we follow the correct method for
jump starting a car, and we fear pavement so we only get out of the car
after it stops moving. Fear is a healthy thing. You are free to hook up
battery cables without a vote.

I don't see the comparison. There are demonstrable hazards for those examples that you gave. In what way can you carry that analogy to belief - or disbelief - in gods?

 

[David Colin Gould]

Does a fish regret water? People understand that this world is not the correct one for us.

This is very, very sad.

 

[GillDouglas]

Hmph. What do you find intellectual about it?

I believe that she means she read it as an intellectual before she could spiritual discern the text.

 

[GrimKingGrim]

I believe that she means she read it as an intellectual before she could spiritual discern the text.

I get that, but she said she read it intellectually. I wanna know exactly how she absorbed that.