The weakest faith is one that is unbending
This came to me, out of nowhere really, but now that it is pinging around in side my skull I feel the need to let it out.
The problem I have previously had with faith, is that it often comes across as being at odds with observation and (in my mind) common sense. I do not think that this should be indicative of the concept itself. People take it on "faith" that god created the world in 7 days, that, even if they can't do it, all the events in the bible make perfect literal sense, etc. When I come across such things it is hard not to leave with a sour taste in my mouth. For a while, I hated the word. Now I have come to believe that it is simply being misused.
I was thinking about the nature of faith (such as I understand it, of course) and I realized something. It is so much easier not to look (For the record, I believe that I hold to a certain level of faith in my life. This is more akin to a Kantian interpretation, but never the less. I also like to think that I have faith in the potential of human goodness. The reason I bring this up is because I have seen people do horrible things, both in my personal life and in a study of history. I can point to war and cruelty and a number of truly evil things, and yet I still, for lack of a better word, have faith). Let us take this back to a religious example. Let us say I believed in creationism. I could go the route of stating all claims to evolutionary findings are a hoax, sham, etc. It is certainly easier. Willful ignorance always is. Or I could re-evaluate what it is that I believe. Maybe this means evolution was god's tool for genesis, maybe not. The point is, faith should never be a barrier to reason.
There is a commonly held view that faith is... immutable. That, when you modify it or change how you look at it, you somehow diminish it. What tends to be forgotten is that that which bends is the strongest.
It is for this reason that I believe many religious groups go to such lengths to condition their children in a certain manner. Religious schools, religious music, religious literature. I think they do this because, ultimately, it is the rare person who questions in a homogeneous state. They are afraid that, if given a choice, their children will choose incorrectly. I see it as being akin to a person who is immuno-compromised. They put themselves and their children in a little bubble so nothing "evil" can enter. In a sense, it is the greatest irony, because doing so makes it that much harder for their children to incorporate any foreign ideas that happen to make it through. They have no defenses, as it were. Either you start to question, which the community views as dangerous, or (and I believe this happens in a majority of cases) "faith" is used as a way to ignore this foreign material. In doing so, though, they hurt themselves more than they help. In a sense it is a very literal use of the phrase "faith is my armor," only in this case what you are armoring yourself against is difficult questions.
And to be perfectly clear, ignoring something doesn't make it go away.
Faith has been abused, and as such has become synonymous with intellectual laziness.
I want to change that, insofar as I can.
Faith is the belief in something that cannot be proven. I realize this offers a lot of wiggle room, and we could enter into a debate over what, if anything, can truly be "proven," but for brevity I will refrain (although such discussions can be good fun ;P). For the sake of argument, though, I shall define it as such. This means that when there is contradictory evidence faith must accommodate, for when one has evidence you are on your way to "proving" something.
This necessitates that a truly constant faith (and I am leery of such, for to never re-examine beliefs is a slow death in my opinion) be about the abstract (the natures of goodness, existence, or god, for example). If someone were to claim that they have faith that it will rain every Tuesday, yet when Tuesday rolls around and there is no rain continues to express this faith, what they have is denial... or maybe delusion. Some "d" word. Not faith.
This is true whether it be a professor with a pet theory or the physicist who believes in miracles ala old testament.
...
Perhaps I do know where this came from. I was driving to pick up my siblings and I saw on the billboard of a local church a description of next Sunday's sermon "Calling Down Fire." I would like to think that this references something other than what I suspect... but well. Let us hear it for organized religion.
As before and as always, comments are welcome. I like to bounce my thoughts against the world, be they public or private.
The problem I have previously had with faith, is that it often comes across as being at odds with observation and (in my mind) common sense. I do not think that this should be indicative of the concept itself. People take it on "faith" that god created the world in 7 days, that, even if they can't do it, all the events in the bible make perfect literal sense, etc. When I come across such things it is hard not to leave with a sour taste in my mouth. For a while, I hated the word. Now I have come to believe that it is simply being misused.
I was thinking about the nature of faith (such as I understand it, of course) and I realized something. It is so much easier not to look (For the record, I believe that I hold to a certain level of faith in my life. This is more akin to a Kantian interpretation, but never the less. I also like to think that I have faith in the potential of human goodness. The reason I bring this up is because I have seen people do horrible things, both in my personal life and in a study of history. I can point to war and cruelty and a number of truly evil things, and yet I still, for lack of a better word, have faith). Let us take this back to a religious example. Let us say I believed in creationism. I could go the route of stating all claims to evolutionary findings are a hoax, sham, etc. It is certainly easier. Willful ignorance always is. Or I could re-evaluate what it is that I believe. Maybe this means evolution was god's tool for genesis, maybe not. The point is, faith should never be a barrier to reason.
There is a commonly held view that faith is... immutable. That, when you modify it or change how you look at it, you somehow diminish it. What tends to be forgotten is that that which bends is the strongest.
It is for this reason that I believe many religious groups go to such lengths to condition their children in a certain manner. Religious schools, religious music, religious literature. I think they do this because, ultimately, it is the rare person who questions in a homogeneous state. They are afraid that, if given a choice, their children will choose incorrectly. I see it as being akin to a person who is immuno-compromised. They put themselves and their children in a little bubble so nothing "evil" can enter. In a sense, it is the greatest irony, because doing so makes it that much harder for their children to incorporate any foreign ideas that happen to make it through. They have no defenses, as it were. Either you start to question, which the community views as dangerous, or (and I believe this happens in a majority of cases) "faith" is used as a way to ignore this foreign material. In doing so, though, they hurt themselves more than they help. In a sense it is a very literal use of the phrase "faith is my armor," only in this case what you are armoring yourself against is difficult questions.
And to be perfectly clear, ignoring something doesn't make it go away.
Faith has been abused, and as such has become synonymous with intellectual laziness.
I want to change that, insofar as I can.
Faith is the belief in something that cannot be proven. I realize this offers a lot of wiggle room, and we could enter into a debate over what, if anything, can truly be "proven," but for brevity I will refrain (although such discussions can be good fun ;P). For the sake of argument, though, I shall define it as such. This means that when there is contradictory evidence faith must accommodate, for when one has evidence you are on your way to "proving" something.
This necessitates that a truly constant faith (and I am leery of such, for to never re-examine beliefs is a slow death in my opinion) be about the abstract (the natures of goodness, existence, or god, for example). If someone were to claim that they have faith that it will rain every Tuesday, yet when Tuesday rolls around and there is no rain continues to express this faith, what they have is denial... or maybe delusion. Some "d" word. Not faith.
This is true whether it be a professor with a pet theory or the physicist who believes in miracles ala old testament.
...
Perhaps I do know where this came from. I was driving to pick up my siblings and I saw on the billboard of a local church a description of next Sunday's sermon "Calling Down Fire." I would like to think that this references something other than what I suspect... but well. Let us hear it for organized religion.
As before and as always, comments are welcome. I like to bounce my thoughts against the world, be they public or private.