When I was a 'dub, I beleived that faith was the Hebrews 11 thing, but since I have put aside that way of thinking and no longer believe God or believe the Bible to be anything more than a collection of human history and philosophy, I tend to think in terms of faith being no more than the dictionary definition:
From Webster:
1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTYb (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions 2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust 3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
I go with 1a: allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY and b(1): fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
When I was a 'dub, I beleived that faith was the Hebrews 11 thing, but since I have put aside that way of thinking and no longer believe God or believe the Bible to be anything more than a collection of human history and philosophy, I tend to think in terms of faith being no more than the dictionary definition:
Mackin,
Well then you should be able to see from the dictionary definition that this term faith can be used many ways. You choose to reject God and the Bible, which is only one use of this term but that
is still sad.
The basis for my faith is mostly the Bible and the truth that is concealed in it. With so many denominations and sects in the world one would expect some of them to have the truth but this is not so. Most have no idea whatsoever as to what the scriptures teach and their doctrines for the most part are not in harmony with the text. It is almost as if we are all not reading the same book? The WT is guilty of thousands of false teachings and rules, many of them dangerous and deadly to their followers. Much of their doctrine is based upon fear and intimidation just like hell fire is to others. But the truth of scripture is liberating with a life giving freedom few enjoy. Perhaps there is still time for you to re-evaluate your views and grasp such truth hidden now in these documents for centuries.
I think something happens when we have 'faith' for breakfast lunch and tea....I know i've had a guts full of it....so now if someone asks me if I have faith...I have to say that I do not....I feel betrayed and misguided with the faith I exercised as a dub.
I don't know why, but a lot of exjw go off the bible, god and all that faith jazz...I know I have. I was talking to a friend tonight who was also born into the troof...she left the same time as I did....and she feels the same way....just had enough I guess.
IMO, Faith is a belief in something through your own reasoning and your own feeling. It does not need to be proved, it is built on your own development of ideas about something.
We all need faith to some degree. Often, we don't know something will happen, but we have to have faith that it will. E.g. if we are to trust someone, that involves an element of faith in the person, based on our experience of them and our reasoning.
Faith can border on intuition IMO. Sometimes we know something without being sure how we know it...we seem to have faith it.
A word like "faith" has no True Meaning, it is a word that means different things to different people. We can talk about functional definitions, but then we have to say what we mean and stick to that defintion throughout the debate. Conflating faith in supernatural beings with faith in everyday events or people we know (belief or trust dispite some necessary margin of error) is disingenious.
As in a lot of things, people define terms/words from their own experiences. As far as faith, below is a paragraph I wrote several days ago on a separate post:
It seems to me faith and belief are two different things. "Faith" is active, whereas "belief" is passive. Some people in "the old world" believed the world was round, not flat and that if you sailed westward you wouldn't fall off into an abyss. Others, like Columbus, took that belief further...they had faith to spend years getting financing, finding ships, crews etc. and actually set sail. I think there is a very REAL 'power' in faith, but the key is applying it to what is real (truth). In other words, faith is a motivator to take action on something that can't be seen, but nevertheless true, whereas belief is a benign cerebral function.
Like muscles, I think faith has to be exercised, or it atrophies.
Sure, making a distinction by defining faith as "active belief" may be useful for some purposes, but hardly for a discussions about why religious people believe certain things about our universe.
All beliefs have consequences, but the question here is what is the basis of people believing that mythology tells the true story about e.g. the origins of life and the universe, or why they believe a supernatural resurrection happened to a certain Jew about 2000 years ago.
Whether active or passive, belief should be founded in facts and rational analysis, not in itself. To believe because you believe and are convinced that is a Good Thing in itself, is pretty meaningless.
