What is faith?

I'm a Pagan and have been for 40 years. I'm more on the shamanistic side of things, the Gods just exist, like we do and we interact with them and they with us. I don't really subscribe to conspiracy theories and certainly not the bible or any of it's teachings on sin, good and evil. I often find atheists more evangelical about their beliefs or lack of them than those who belong to an evangelical faith, weird huh?

As a very comfortable atheist, I would describe faith as "unnecessary" 

At best, it's believing in silly stuff without evidence or good reason
At worst it's excuse-making for beliefs untethered from reality and an open door for conspiracy theories and the like.

If it's a question of live with or without, I say "let it go" much more happiness, freedom and flourishing awaits you that way. 
If it's a question of why do people believe in what they do.  Stumps me. People believe all sorts of weird things and not always for clear, logical reasons. I've read about funerary procedures from other cultures, ancestor worship, mono and pan-theism.   Arguments of philosophers and theologians. None of them have ever demonstrated that gods and deities and born from that human need to create a deity which we do on the regular throughout history.  It would be very odd if one of those turned out to be real when all others are fictional.  

I find the history of how the bible was written by whom when and why to be intensely fascinating - which betrays it's origins as a very terrestrial book* cut through with the kind of factional human disputes and manipulations that undercut the idea that it is revelatory with divine ideas.

*for instance in The Gospel of John when Pilate interviews Jesus after his denunciation by the Pharisees, the author goes out of his way to paint the two figures as alone.  Pilate even leaves and goes outside to converse with the Pharisees.
This is the famous scene that contains fabulous lines like "What is Truth" and "My kingdom is not of this Earth" 

But how did the author of John's gospel know that's what they said?

It's not like there was a roman stenographer recording the exchanges in shorthand Latin, nor was John hiding behind the conveniently large flowerpot with a papyrus and quill.  Jesus was dead a matter of hours later - and Pilate is then recalled to Rome John being the last of the gospels to be written (about 80 years later after the execution) so how on earth did the author of John know what words were said?

Logical problems like that litter the the bible.

I once tried reading the Qu'ran - it was so dull.  I switched to a book about computational mathematics for relief. 

There’s an old saying along the lines of faith being impossible to describe to the unfaithful and unnecessary to describe to the faithful. That’s quite true. It’s difficult to discuss.

As a practising Christian I find it useful to keep my faith and spirituality separate from the organised religion to which I belong but with which I am becoming increasingly frustrated. The Church of England doesn’t sit well with me at the moment. Christianity does. Some people find that hard to understand but others may well nod in agreement.

At their core I believe all faiths are broadly about becoming a better person, caring for and loving your fellow humans and the world in which we live, and developing a discipline by which to live.

I think religion is  private matter but i like the theory of the higher power .To me sometimes there seems a force is looking out for me when my times are at their worst and boy has this year been a bad year.

I think the people tat work on crisis lines are amazing.I had the worst day of my life Feb 26th this year which when I am ready I wills are on here but a lady on the crisp line at 4am the following morning just asked to me and I got through the night

This year I got very interested in Thich Nhat Hanh’s buddhist teachings and they’ve been massively helpful to me. There is a monastery called Plum Village and they put all their teachings on their YouTube channel. I’ve finally found a religious practice/teachings that really make sense to me. It’s all very gentle and caring, and really fascinating too. I’d recommend it to anyone who is struggling because they’ve bought me a huge amount of comfort and help. They sometimes discuss the subject of ‘faith’ and what that means in relation to Buddhism. 

Faith is at essence what you believe and how you practice it really.  I am a Christian. I have shared my experience of my faith on my blog which is just one page. Anyone can read it if they are interested,

racheltestimony.blogspot.com/

Faith is a word not exclusive to religion. But often used as an excuse to bash religion. As someone who identifies as Christian but I am not 'religious' I think sometimes we can explain things a little better without being vague, as to not offend anyone who is or identifies as 'religious'

I have deep respect and regard for the old Celtic and Pagan traditions, as did Saint Patrick in his time - just like Saint Patrick, I do believe that there is something of great value in these older Celtic and Pagan beliefs 

Having an interest in truthful accounts of history through research (which is why I have a big problem with historians being censored online) we know that the old Celtic traditions distrusted anything coming from mainland Europe via the U.K. and especially from the Roman Empire and why they did initially distrust Saint Patrick, a Welsh Romanised Christian 

I have empathy for the struggles of Irish Catholics as a Jew. My people have a well documented 5000+ year history of such struggles. 

I find that rather difficult to square with my own understanding of god and the bible.

There was a time when I believed in god, became a born again christian etc.

Then an incident occurred that scared the hell out of me, and it took eight years to figure out what really happened. I've become a huge sceptic of anything religious.

I was brought up as an Anglican Christian, went on to study (as an amateur) the theology behind these beliefs including an I depth reading of most of the bible. And as a consequence of the knowledge gained saw that the truth is absolutely NOT that  god = love, quite the reverse. My psychiatrists and therapists have sometimes delved into the religion in my background and the answer I come up with most times is “were I an atheist it would be easy, but I’m not, I know that there is a god and that he hates me and sending me to hell”. 

Debbie1, I share your husbands view.  Although my religion dates back over 5k years to Abraham. I believe alien (deities) spoke to Abraham and many other followers (priests) of many other religions. Aliens have always been with us indeed, I believe we are their experiment. They are so far advanced they could only be interpreted as Gods.

I have trouble understanding many things, including faith, religion, gender, culture, race, and weirdly enough patriotism. I am saying I have trouble understanding. I am not against any of it. I don't believe there is a point hating something you don't know. But religion particularly never made any sense to me. It's just tales told to us by parents or family. And all of them contradicts with one another and even itself. I can understand how they originated, but that itself is just proof that there is no supernatural powers.

well faith the word is like... trust.. or hope...

think of it this way, you are to fall backwards in a test of trust in a partner. your partner is supposed to catch you, if he doesnt you fall on the floor and crack your head.... you trust and believe your partner will catch you, so you do it, this is faith. you have faith in someone elses action that you would do something harmful like fall backwards when you dont control that other person yet are reliant on them to catch you and not let you fall. theres no proof that the person will catch you, yet you do a dangerous self harmful thing anyone on faith that they will.

now in reality they may not catch you and you may crack your head... this is why knowledge is better, for this knowledge would be getting a foam floor or a mattress beneath you, so your know if the person didnt catch you you have knowledge it wont hurt as youd just fall safely on the mattress.

so in a way faith is assumptive, while knowledge is superior and secure and absolute.

if religious people truly believed their religion they wouldnt call it a faith theyd say it is knowledge and absolute fact. this use of faith puts it on assumptive level of theory, meaning they arnt sure themselves by the wording of faith.

I struggle with having faith. I prefer proof. Often, when I have put my faith in something or someone I have been disappointed.

I used to attend church, but found myself 'masking' faith as opposed to really feelng what everyone else seemed to be feeling. I certainly saw a lot of people doing some weird stuff in the name of faith. If you ever attended an evangelical style event you'll know what I mean.

The endpoint for me was when I was told I had to just believe what a senior pastor was teaching and stop questioning.

I was reading about the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers, and that he is a Mormon.

I looked up what Mormons believe, as I'd forgotten.

It set me thinking how complex people are, what a dichotomy between his public image and his private self.

I think that if we were only able to believe those things we have proof of, we would be very limited as people, our spirituality would be greatly diminished.

Faith is to me difficult to pinpoint because it means different things to people. It's best for me to understand its literal meaning. It comes from the Latin Fides, synonymous with the Roman goddess Fides, goddess of loyalty and trust - this word has given us fidelity, as well as faith.

Loyalty and trust with regard to an idea, deity, person or thing is perhaps a way to define faith. 

We all have some faith, even if not overtly religious. It can be big, or small. 

I'm not religious, but that doesn't mean I'm right! 

Why? Because it’s right I guess..