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 would answer the title question with "The suspension of disbelief". This was an idea about how fiction works for the reader, the reader suspends disbelief in the story, and so enters the world the writer has created. I think that, with the addition of the word 'willing', it works for religious faith, "The willing suspension of disbelief". The original idea was Tolkien's, himself a devout Catholic.
Martin said: "The suspension of disbelief"
I remember that from my 'A' level English lit.
I use the phrase 'the suspension of the suspension of disbelief' when, for example, a character in a film etc talks to the camera.
Anything that takes away the belief we have in the characters being 'real'.
Oddly, spelling/typographical mistakes in novels do this for me too..
Anything that takes away the belief we have in the characters being 'real'. Oddly, spelling/typographical mistakes in novels do this for me too..
Yes, I find that jarring too. Now that computerised typesetting is so easy the arts of editing and proof-reading seem to have died. I was reading a recent history book about the Roman emperor Constantius II, when I came to the third or fourth mangled sentence, that I could extract no sense out of, I just gave up - I gave it a stinking review on Amazon!
My father-in-law was a print worker, he could fluently read type that was back-to-front and upside down.