Faith

[RichDellaValle]

Throughout my life, particularly during my Christian years, I wondered why God never physically appeared to anyone, made an announcement from the sky, or in some way made contact with humans. Of course, religionists’ short answer is, “He chooses not to,” and I totally get that now! If I were that all-powerful person or even a mere important person in this world, why would I want millions of humans pestering me? Why would they expect to live with me in my heavenly kingdom? I’d WANT to live in a gated compound that keeps them out! As an ordinary Joe, I appreciate my quiet life and hate the phone interruptions or the salesman banging on my door. Why should God be different? Obviously, I’m not a people person, and apparently, neither is God!

 

I now realize that religionists (the very first scam artists) recognized that the promise of an eternity of joy and happiness would make people do almost anything and provide good money to receive it, and history proves me out on this. It was man that created God, not the other way around. But if there is no God, how do I sucker people in? Ah, an invisible God! I’d have to convince people that even though you can’t see him, he does exist, so somehow, I’d have to get them to believe in the unbelievable. Ah, faith!

 

Christians speak much about “faith.” This is because the entire religion hinges on faith and not “reason. The word “faith” is used almost 300 times in the New Testament, and it is used only TWICE in the Old Testament. The meaning of “faith” in Hebrew, according to Strong’s “Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible” means “steadfast.” Unger’s “Bible Dictionary,” Moody Press, Chicago, defines the Greek word pistis: “belief, trust – especially in a higher power. The fundamental idea in Scripture is steadfastness, faithfulness.” The meaning in Hebrew and Greek seems to coincide because it is a straightforward word. Christianity formulated a doctrine around this word.

 

Unger writes this concerning the Rule of Faith: “In the early Church, the summary of doctrines taught to catechumens, and to which they were obliged to subscribe before baptism. It was afterward applied to the Apostles’ Creed. In modern theology, it denotes the true source of our knowledge of Christian truth.”

 

Protestant Doctrine: “The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proven thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite, or necessary to salvation.”

 

Roman Catholic teaching is: “A person must believe that the Church cannot err and that whatever it teaches is infallibly true.”

 

In the Old Testament, God wanted man to remain steadfast in him and obey his ordinances – not an impossible feat. Everything was spelled out for his people, and there was no need for a belief in “things unseen.” The Jewish God manifested himself to the Exodus Jews as a pillar of cloud and fire that led them along the way (Ex 13:21). Then came people who wished to form a new religion contradicting previously written Scripture, and a doctrine of faith was deemed essential to ensure compliance since they could not produce a pillar of cloud and fire. Faith forces the ignorant to believe wholeheartedly in what they are told, even if it makes no sense, because God’s ways are mysterious (Heb 11:1, 6). You will go to Hell and suffer eternal torment if you don’t believe. The Church is infallible! 

 

Let the intelligent person seeking truth consider why these early fathers of the church forced their uneducated neophytes to believe everything they said and to take it on faith - faith not in the traditional sense of steadfastness, but an entirely new doctrine that means “To accept what is not believable.” Consider also that the early Church forbade non-clergy even to read Scripture, giving the Church boundless freedom to manipulate Scripture any way they pleased. Keeping the masses ignorant to the point of actually murdering them if they rebelled became Church policy – and don’t doubt that this was done for over a thousand years! For example, the Church executed William Tyndale for heresy when he translated the Bible for the people to read for themselves.

 

And what about the believable? Christian faith demands you to forget what “knowledge” you have. What about the proofs of other beliefs? We are told to ignore them. For example, the historian Diodorus Siculus authored a forty-volume historical chronicle of times past. Did he have any more reason to lie than Church Founders? Yet what he chronicled was backed up by documents and ancient writings, which religionists have always tried to obliterate. Even more, than documents are the artifacts, the pyramids themselves, the hieroglyphics, the unexplainable rock formations found on Easter Island, Stonehenge, and other places that back up what Diodorus wrote. How can these things be dismissed for the new Christian faith?

 

To quote Erich von Daniken, The Eyes of the Spinx, Berkley Books, 1996:

 

“Diodorus did his homework. He studied the ancient sources that were available and talked to knowledgeable people. We did not. We destroyed the old libraries in the name of whatever religion was prevalent at the time; we burned precious old documents and murdered the learned and wise men of their cultures. The library of Carthage contained five hundred thousand documents. Where are they? Burned! The Sibylline Books and the Avesta of the Parsees, written in golden letters. Where are they? Burned! The libraries of Pergamum, Jerusalem, Alexandria, with millions of documents. Where are they? Burned! The priceless manuscripts of the Central American cultures. Where are they? Burned! Our pyromaniacal past shines much more brightly than the dim wits of some of our “revolutionary” thinkers.”

[sdelsolray]

Some thoughts on use of the word "faith":

 

1)  "Faith" has more than one meaning, which overlap and which have differences.

 

2)  I like to use two adjectives to separate two of these definitions:

 

     a)  Religious faith - Based on Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) - "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  

 

I interpret this sentence as 'Religious faith is wishful thinking, and that wishful thinking is evidence of things one otherwise cannot sense or experience.'

 

     b)  Secular faith - 'Trust or confidence in a person, thing or event based on previous experience or actual evidence.'

3)  The difference between these two primarily involves the use (or lack of use) of experience or evidence.  Another difference is how the concept of evidence is used.  In religious faith, the evidence is the wishful thinking.  In secular faith, the evidence is empirical and relevant.  Finally, religious faith tends to involve an appeal to emotion and secular faith involves an appeal to rational thinking.

4)  Use of the word "faith" has become somewhat toxic in communication unless there is an understanding of which definition is being used.

5)  I avoid using the word "faith" except in the religious context.  In the secular context, I use the words trust or confidence.

 

[RichDellaValle]

15 hours ago, sdelsolray said:

Some thoughts on use of the word "faith":

I use faith in place of the word trust, as in I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. There's still an element of doubt, but it hasn't missed yet in billions of years!

[sdelsolray]

On 5/15/2023 at 3:51 AM, RichDellaValle said:

I use faith in place of the word trust, as in I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. There's still an element of doubt, but it hasn't missed yet in billions of years!

 

For the reasons I stated, I choose to say, "I'm sure the sun will rise tomorrow", or "I'm confident the sun will rise tomorrow", or "Based on my understanding of celestial mechanics within our solar system as well as stellar theory as applied to Sol, I have no reason to believe the sun will not rise tomorrow".  I would avoid use of the word "faith" in that sentence, because I reserve that word for religious discussions/statements, not secular ones.  It makes communication easier, at least for me.

 

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

On 5/15/2023 at 6:51 AM, RichDellaValle said:

I use faith in place of the word trust, as in I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. There's still an element of doubt, but it hasn't missed yet in billions of years!

 

8 hours ago, sdelsolray said:

 

For the reasons I stated, I choose to say, "I'm sure the sun will rise tomorrow", or "I'm confident the sun will rise tomorrow", or "Based on my understanding of celestial mechanics within our solar system as well as stellar theory as applied to Sol, I have no reason to believe the sun will not rise tomorrow".  I would avoid use of the word "faith" in that sentence, because I reserve that word for religious discussions/statements, not secular ones.  It makes communication easier, at least for me.

 

 

I have faith y'all two will work out y'all's differences here.

[pantheory]

On 5/18/2023 at 2:45 AM, TheRedneckProfessor said:

 

I have faith y'all two will work out y'all's differences here.

 

I have faith in most people believing they will do "what's right." But if the worst happens I am not flabbergasted and seldom unprepared; that's simply life in the big city, and often elsewhere  

[older]

On 5/14/2023 at 12:16 PM, sdelsolray said:

....  In the secular context, I use the words trust or confidence.

 

 

I'm confident that faith cannot be trusted.