Evidence and Religious Faith
Some people believe that evidence and faith are incompatible, that the very idea of faith is that faith is a belief that cannot be proven, so that it does not require evidence. However, evidence and proof are two very different concepts. Scientifically, one can only ever disprove a hypothesis. In other words, while it might be possible to disprove the existence of a god or gods, it would be impossible to eliminate all other variables that might provide support for the existence of god. When one fails to eliminate a hypothesis, one gathers support for a theory, or, evidence. It is this evidence that is frequently the foundation for faith. The philosophical ideal that "faith is trusting in an object or person or belief or concept that you first of all have determined exists or is true via some type of convincing evidence" certainly applies in the religious scenario. After all, people are drawn to various religions because of their own life experiences, and those life experiences provide the evidence that forms the backdrop for their faith. People are compelled to have faith in religions not randomly; a person with one religious faith does axiomatically have that same faith in all other religions. Instead, the person has faith in a particular religion. The fact that people can discriminate between religious belief systems suggests that they use some type of criteria, or evidence, to choose between those religious systems. However, many
Religion was involved with many things in a person’s life. It affects things like social status, relationships, the economy, culture, and politics. The complex ideas of religion and politics have shaped societies. The Puritans have set their goal to make their society and way of living connected to God in every way, shape, and form. In the seventeenth century this standard to keep God by your side has deeply affected politics and lawmaking, and has even caused some people to be continuously persecuted. From the strength of their religious beliefs stemmed these radical ideas, which deeply affected lives in the 17th century. Though these ideas were a way of life at one point in time, if these ideas were applied to our government today the
Faith is belief in something unknown or unseen. It is belief in something you don’t have control over. It is trust that someone or something is correct, even if you have never really experienced it. It is the assumption of something that you fully put your trust in, that it is correct and unshakeable. Faith is belief in something wholly without fail. In the case of Christianity and Jesus, it is the belief of life and forgiveness for all if only you have faith in God. A characteristic of faith that people most often don’t usually think about is the act of practicing your faith. A person might say they have faith in God and believe in Him but people often say
There is an ample scope of debate as to whether Mormonism is Christianity or not. It is true that both are similar; however, Protestants and Catholics equally are against the acceptance of Mormons to be Christians. There are many doctrinal similarities between the Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon). Both churches accept Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and teach that salvation comes through faith in Christ, repentance and baptism. The differences between the two churches revolve around priesthood authority, continuing revelation, the nature of God, the purpose of mortality and eternal marriage as well as methods of baptism. Beyond its shared nature
Faith as defined by the Merriam –Webster Dictionary is a noun. Faith could mean having confidence or trust in a person or thing, a belief that is not based on proof, a code of ethics or the belief in God or the doctrines or teachings of religion. Faith is something that many struggle with, especially when their trust has been compromised or broken.
The definition of faith from Merriam-Webster dictionary is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something, and the strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
Christian leaders should generate their decisions in the image of God’s word. Luke 6:31 New International Version (NIV) states “do to others as you would have them do to you.” Therefore, it is imperative that leader’s decisions refrain from manipulating, lying, cheating or stealing.
However, belief in God requires faith. Faith is needed in order for one to accept the existence of the Divine. The existence of God is controversial (and unlikely) for one who has no basis of faith. This is because reason cannot explain faith. Reason cannot explain the existence of something that it has no basis for. This relates back to Descartes “cogito ergo sum,” meaning, “I think, therefore I am.” Although Descartes was concerned with knowledge of the individual, this can relate to God. To think that there exists a God inherently assumes that there is such a force in the universe. Given that religion is a collective practice and an act of obedience to God performed by many people for centuries, it seems horrendous to assume that so many people have been wrong about their experience and belief. One can come to this conclusion through deduction by moving from general to specific; millions of people cannot simply be wrong in believing that there is a
I know this because there are many things that people believed on faith long before it was ever proven of even suggested scientifically. One example is the fall of the walls around the city of Jericho. The bible tells us that the hand of God pushed them down. While it is unlikely that it will ever be proven that it was actually the hand of God that did this, recent archeological evidence tells us that something pushed down the walls of Jericho. People believed that this happened centuries before this evidence surfaced. So I say that the notion that matters of faith cannot be demonstrated is absurd.
The concept of faith is one that most people are aware of, though they may not be able to define it. The definition of faith is to have a complete trust in something or someone. In most people’s cases, the something or someone is God. To have faith, you must first hear about the thing that you want to have faith in. The thing can’t be seen; otherwise, you just believe without faith. Then you must trust that the thing exists and that what is said about it is true. Faith is a concept that has been around since the creation of the world before the world fell into sin. Adam had faith in God, and God gave him authority over Earth. He later gives up this authority to Satan. Faith is an attribute that everyone needs to have and is one of the most important concepts that a person can know. Faith involves trusting an individual or thing so much that you would blinding walk according to their will. Faith can be compared to trust falling. One person keeps their back to the other while falling backward into the other’s arms. It takes not only trust in the other person, but faith
Uncovering a religious understanding requires a universal acceptance of a higher being, and the willingness to accept the teachings of that particular faith. There are questions that many want answered in regards to what is religion, why so many different kinds of faiths, and what urges a person to practice certain religious traditions. What is known today is that religious traditions make who a person has become.
All over the world there is some kind of conspiracy. One is the Organized Church Conspiracy or the Organized Religion Conspiracy. Many people think that Organized Religion is a source of evil, however it can be a source of wars, genocide and dogmatism but, “An Organized Religion is a faith system with an over-arching structure worship practices, and administrate the organization” (What Is Organized Religion and Does the Bible Support It?). The Organized Religion Conspiracy or Faith System is evidently proven by telling us how religion is a form of mind control, how organized religion is affecting human population, and how religions are in the world around us.
Having faith means something different for each person that uses it. For some, it is a complete confidence in someone or something. This deals with the non-religious side of faith. And others believe that faith is the strong belief in God, based on spiritual understanding rather than proof. This is the religious understanding or definition of what faith is. But to me, faith is trusting or believing in an idea or a person, even when no one else does or when there is no evidence to back up my beliefs. To me, faith means not giving up when I’m put in situations where I don't know what to expect. Faith means that I have to keep moving ahead even through the dark and scary parts of my life. Faith is walking through a dark tunnel blindly with the
One personal belief that I would have a difficult time changing is my freedom of speech. The reason being that nobody has the right to tell my I cannot express my beliefs. I want to be someone who changes the world so being able to speak whenever I want on different problems is necessary. What would you do if someone tried to take away your freedom of speech? If it had not been for a lot of civil rights leaders everything would be the same as it had been several years ago. I don’t know what would change this belief because this is a natural right. This belief has changed my life because my freedom of speech has given me a voice to be able to be with or against a certain subject. My speech gives me my personality, and my mindset.
You can not have religion without faith. George W. Forell states that "faith is universal," (Forell 1). By this Forell is saying that everyone has some sort of belief, they believe in something or somebody. Forell is not limiting this belief to God, or gods for that matter, he simply means that all humans believe in something- money, or education, or the general goodness of mankind. Forell goes on to also describe Christian faith; "Classical Protestantism asserts that God wants fellowship with man and that if we trust completely in Jesus Christ and his work we will have communion with God. This complete and utter trust in Jesus Christ is faith," (Forell 19). I tend to side with George W. Forell and his explanation of Christian faith.