Faith, what do you make of this?

by God_Delusion 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  God_Delusion

  Hi Guy's & Gal's,

  I read this article on Jehovah's Witness Blog and it really got me thinking, what really is faith? I do believe that the term "Faith", can be used in different contexts. For example, if we are stating that "I have faith in so-and-so, because I know them and they wouldn't have done something like that", then it's different to stating "I have faith in Jehovah".

  You see, even though we may be wrong in our assumption that our friend wouldn't have done the thing we were referring to in the above statement, at least we know the person. We should have evidence before making such a remark, right? We cannot, however, state anything about Jehovah, or any God, demi-god, etc, can we?

  And I do agree with the article, faith in a God of any kind, is blind faith.

  Regards
  RAB
• 

  PSacramento

  Whether one has faith of blind faith is base don ones experieces and who they view them.

  I think that, when issues of faith and hope come up we do wel to remember what Paul said:

  Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these is Love.
• 

  Terry

  What is the difference between saying:

  I know.....

  and saying:

  I believe I know....

  Doesn't knowing something indicate actual confidence in a way which is lessened, modified and conditionally changed by inserting "I believe"?

  You see, this is not an argument about facts. It is the time-honored argument all JW's love. It is an argument about words.

  Faith is a word and not a fact.

  Faith is like holding your arm out in front of you; it requires continuous effort to keep it there.

  You must sustain the effort or the arm comes down.

  to Believe requires that continuous effort of will against the gravity of reality which pulls the belief away.

  We live in a practical world.

  We can't change the practicality of needing to eat, work, sleep and sustain life.

  It can be daunting and humdrum. It can be scary and depressing.

  The promises made by cults exact a heavy price in exchange for the glimmering hope of all problems solved. You are required to ignore the reality of today for the illusory hope of a miraculous tomorrow.

  Faith is the effort of continually ignoring reality to cling to a comforting fantasy.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are masters of ignoring reality by describing it purely in terms of a New World that has been a-l-m-o-s-t here for over 2000 years.

  Any joy to be had in this life is squandered by trading it for faith in a cartoon happy ending.

  Life is Real.

  Faith is Imagination.
• 

  leec

  The word faith, without any special adornment, simply means having a firm expectation. I doesn't require any special effort. If you think a pond is frozen and you start to walk out on it confidently and quickly, you have faith that, under each step you take, the ice is firm and will hold you up. If you suddenly break though, you are surprised because your faith has been contradicted ... and will be less in conviction next time.

  The issue with faith in the Christian sense of the word is that it necessitates an a priori confident expectation ... that, never having seen ice before, you believe that it will hold up under your weight.

  One interesting point here is that, in the case of the example, an icy pond, one might reasonably suggest that someone who's never seen ice might assume that it will be strong without knowing anything about it ... which may be construed as an act of ignorant carelessness if the ice is thin. But in order to make this supposition one must consider the fact that he knows from experience or learning that ice sometimes can be thin. But in the case of religious faith we know nothing at all either way, so it's equally reasonable or unreasonable to to have faith in these mysteries. If one is trying to pursue faith from an intellectual point of view, the only correct answer is that either insisting on having faith or refusing to have faith are equally valid.

  I have faith, because somewhere down the line of reasoning ... whether it's religion, science, or imagination, there is a point where the ability to understand overpowers the finite powers of the (very feeble and fallible) human mind.