Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm hoping, probably naively, that this won't turn into a bun fight.
So, I've not Googled the meaning of religious faith but I will just share some of my thoughts here.
There are a lot of religions in the world. They can't all be right, can they?
Surely if what a person of faith believes is true, that particular faith must be true for everyone?
After death we can't all be shooting off to different places, can we?
I haven't read about this but a friend of mine (autistic) has a special interest in faith and reads reams of books.
He is particularly interested in Shamanism and I find that quite fascinating.
I find ancient and 'Tribal' religions of great interest.
I'm agnostic.
However, I'm not sure which fence I sit on as all the major religions have something to offer but some of them have caused a lot of death and suffering too over the centuries.
My husband believes that the world was created by aliens. Is this a faith too, even if not a religious one?
People sometimes talk as though they know that their faith is true.
However, how can it be as the word 'faith' is explicitely saying it's a belief.
It can't be proven as what happens after death can't be known.
Also even if historical figures such as Jesus did live (and there is evidence that this is true) it's our interpretation of their signficance that is pertinent.
Hence the word 'faith'.
If you have a faith, please share why you believe if you care to.
Please also just share your thoughts on this.
Thanks.
I had faith once but I lost that faith.
My parents died in horrible circumstances and I've got my own issues now having been through that, abuse and a fire.
I did ask a vicar about it and why it happened and his response? God works in mysterious ways.
So yeah, I lost my faith.
I like the idea of aliens creating all this and watching us as we grow and evolve.
If I may offer an alternate interpretation. I have never been particularly enamoured of the theological theory of predestination. The notion that everything that happens in the world is gods will. there is far too much pain and suffering to accept that as a premise. And anyway a world in which human beings couldn’t hurt themselves and others would be a world in which human choice was affectively meaningless. I don’t think God wanted a world where human choice was meaningless I think God wanted us to be better people.
there is a section in the book of proverbs which talks about the spirit of wisdom standing on the roadside screaming hey stupid how long are you going to be stupid come and learn. So much human suffering is not merely malevolence what probably kills more people is stupidity.
earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do by falling on their heads yet we still stupidly build buildings that are earthquake prone in earthquake hotspots.
so when people suffer and die needlessly and everybody blames God I have to wonder how long God has been trying to get through our thick skulls that if only we were a bit smarter and more careful and willing to help our fellow man all of this suffering could’ve been avoided in the first place.
as one of his friends said to Job God is always speaking to us trying to save us sometimes in dreams or sometimes with an angel but human beings do not understand and do not pay attention.
Are you so sure? When I say human choice I include the human choice not to act and find solutions to difficult problems. The gap between what we can fix and what we do fix in medicine is immense.
For example we already have the means to almost compellable eradicate cancer. Just give every person a full body MRI every month. Any new tumour would be caught in stage 1 by comparing the scans and stage one tumours tend to be curable with minimal side effects. We don't do that, not because we lack the technology, but because of the expense.
I mean you'd need to put an MRI machine in every GPs surgery. Maybe more than one even. But in theory we could.
There is a lot of suffering that is not explained by stupidity, or human choice. I know this from working in a neonatal unit