Faith, Religion, Church

[secret_stuff]

My last post got a little (ok a lot) sidetracked in the comments about some nitty-gritty details of Christian interpretation, and there is one important distinction I want to make.

Comments

[overfreak]

I don't really break down the definition of faith in secular and religious ways. People claim faith in a lot of things only they don't call it faith because they believe in the cirumstantial evidence they see to confirm that belief or faith. That is something I have always found facinating, especially from people that claim no belief in such nonsense. I agree that faith is not an intellectual excercise, at least not entirely. However, I don't think its a case of a person cannot find faith by examining the evidence. The best way I could put it I think is that I have faith in the existance of God. I have no expectation of God parting the heavens and saying "Yo what up, I'm here." for me. However, looking around at things and events I find circumstansial proof that confirms his existance and have helped bringing me to this conclusion, that being the existance of God. If that makes sense and addresses what you were saying or not, I am suddenly not so sure

[secret_stuff]

Thanks for the comment! I can definitely see a lot of your points and agree with them. On the issue of faith having secular and Christian definitions, I make that distinction precisely for the reasons you give... People have all sorts of "secular faith" that I believe is intrinsically different from Christian faith. For example, LOTS of people, myself included, have faith in "science." I believe in the way atoms and molecules work, and the periodic table of elements and all that stuff. While one might say "well those things are facts, proven and repeatable by experimentation!' That may well be true but *I* have never actually performed those experiments, nor do I ever really intend to. I am taking other people at their word for it - I believe without needing to see the proof myself

[overfreak]

A quick look, probably Romans 12:3 or 1 Cor 12:9, though there are others.

Romans 12:3
"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

1 Cor 12:7-9
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. (8) For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; (9) To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;"

I tend to look to Hebrews 11 (The Faith Chapter) and use that as my definition of faith. Which is more what is faith rather than how you get it.

[secret_stuff]

OK, this is where I was coming from, you may have a different take on it, in Romans 9 (specifically 6-18). I understand he is talking about the Israelites there, but I had taken a larger connotation about faith as well.