Faith a belief without knowing for sure

[SamuelTP1977]

To Brinny,

I believe what I am saying is not based on the Bible, but I am an individual who is free to believe what makes sense to myself, as are you. I do like to read the New Testament for inspiration and from time to time. I do pray this helps me to hope for Heaven and feel connected to a higher power. All though I do find myself doubting as of late, I just try to remind myself we are not made to know. The theory that we came from primitive animals having sex maybe correct, but it could be incorrect as well, or we got some help along the way either way I do find myself doubting a lot, but I try to keep faith.

Hang in there,

Sam

 

[Ratjaws]

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!

Samuel,
On the contrary... "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." This is how St. Paul defined the Christian faith. My mentor, John A. Hardon, defined faith as "an assent of the mind to truth." Faith thus is something immaterial, substantial and very real. Christian faith comes via divine revelation and we know that the One who reveals cannot lie or deceive. We know that Christ is God who says "I am the way, the truth and the life." Put all this together and we find faith is a supernatural virtue (an intellectual power) that in no way violates reason. That is faith is above reason because it cannot be known through reason. Yet faith is solidly centered in truth and completely reasonable!

The Christian faith tells us about a life beyond this life. It descibes a world that is like ours now but lifted up beyond what we currently experience. This world is a type of the next as sacred scripture claims throughout. The next life is even more real than this in that we will be closer to God and more of our perfections will manifest themselves then. We will be whole without defect as in this life. Sin will no longer plague our experience as we will see God "face to face" and not want anything but His will.

As for the afterlife, we DO know there is an another life both from divine revelation and philosophically. The former I've laid out in cursory so I will speak about the philosophical now. We know human beings (persons) are different from the rest of creation, and especially animals, because we are capable of what they are not. We can think! Animals only act in accordance with what their senses give them but we can act after thinking about what our bodily senses present. We have ideas in our mind and they are not material, as with an animal's thoughts, but immaterial. We know this because, for instance, an idea of a flower cannot be taken apart, yet the matter of that flower can be broken down into it's material constituents. Since our thoughts are not material then our form (that is the cause of our thought life or our soul) must be immaterial and therefore not bound by material characteristics. Matter corrupts and dies therefore what is not material must not be corruptible or capable of death. Our soul is therefore incorruptible and will live on after death.

We know we have an afterlife! This does not dismiss mystery any more than it makes this world unimportant or less real. In fact the Christian faith plainly encourages us to realize that what we do in this life (morally) has a direct bearing on the next. Thus Christianity is more solidly rooted in the world we experience now than any other religious or philosophical world view. At the same time it admonishes us to keep our eyes on the next life while walking through this one because the next is our goal.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Samuel,
On the contrary... "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." This is how St. Paul defined the Christian faith. My mentor, John A. Hardon, defined faith as "an assent of the mind to truth." Faith thus is something immaterial, substantial and very real. Christian faith comes via divine revelation and we know that the One who reveals cannot lie or deceive. We know that Christ is God who says "I am the way, the truth and the life." Put all this together and we find faith is a supernatural virtue (an intellectual power) that in no way violates reason. That is faith is above reason because it cannot be known through reason. Yet faith is solidly centered in truth and completely reasonable!

Faith is not a virtue.

 

[anonymous person]

Faith is not a virtue.

You are right. Faith is a gift from God.

Now living faithfully with the faith God has given us is virtuous indeed.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

You are right. Faith is a gift from God.

Now living faithfully with the faith God has given us is virtuous indeed.

Apparently it's not gifted to everyone, even though their salvation depends on it, or so we are told.

 

[SamuelTP1977]

Keep hope alive!

 

[GrowingSmaller]

To me faith is an attitude towards the non natural, or the supernatural. It doesnt have to be religious, it can relate to pixies and elves, or even to the questions like "is this a dream" foundaitons of naturalism itself.

Ecco, another user, in another thread (IIRC) said that faith in science wasn't an unfounded belief, but a feeling of confidence and trust.

For me religion is like that, a feeling of trust in God and some of the practices and other tenets.

So faith is not "lack of sureness" but there is a feeling it produces as a consequence, a trust, and security which is (or can act as) a psychological foundation for inner calm.

Is this "a crutch"? Is sureness (as in a firm foundation) ok for science, but not ok for religion?