Faith killing: So What?

[_sock puppet]

According to Mormon scripture, faith is hope in something unseen--but which is true. That is, it is good guessing in the absence of evidence.

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

So what is hope for things which are not seen, which are untrue? Quixotic?

Without evidence, how is one to know if one has faith rather than merely being quixotic?

When you buy a house, do you just hope that everything is in good working order, or do you have a home inspection performed so you can make an informed, evidence based decision of whether to buy the home?

How many of you are paying the price and buying an 'afterlife' without any evidence for it? Just naked hope?

Why is faith a thing of value when it boils down, by definition, to being a guessing game?

[Guest]

Yes, it's a guessing game. Guess right and you win the prize.

It's also a game that tends to reward credulity (plus luck) and punish skepticism and critical thinking.

[_Quasimodo]

I've wondered about the meaning of faith for quite a while. The best I can come up with is that it is the hope that something is true.

When I've discussed this with believers they usually answer that they "know" it is true. Clearly, they do not. They're just hoping so much that they pretend that it's true.

I'm not sure that faith is a good thing, even though one usually hears otherwise. Have faith, keep the faith, etc.

Basing one's life on hopes is probably not the best course.

"Faith is believing what you know ain't true" Twain.

[_Nightlion]

Why is faith a thing of value when it boils down, by definition, to being a guessing game?

A truth can be misrepresented

Faith can be falsely so called

The existence of billions of dead end false faiths cannot prove true faith does not exist or does not have great value.

When faith is not of yourself it is a gift of God and has tremendous value.

Eph. 2: 8
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The faith that draws people to successfully come unto Christ is planted in their hearts by God. Those who do not cast it out but attend to it and nurture it that it may grow will follow where it leads and open the door to the sheepfold by meekness and a contrite purposeful repentance.

Before I was ten years into my faith I was called upon and sent to the Eastern Lands of the United States of America by the commandment of God. Most of my time there I had a certain gift of faith abiding within me that was rather inexplicable. It led me and prospered my goings on not knowing why because I was about other things at the same time. Then a seriously momentous event occurred that required all my faith to accomplish a great blessing for the nation and millions of people and lands and cities that could have been irreparably harmed. I exerted my faith and commanded the elements in the name of Christ and by the power of the priesthood. No sooner had I done so than I noted clearly that the faith which had led me to that moment was gone. I mean it was put in me for a reason and once the purpose was accomplished it was no longer turned on like before. It was not like I had learned anything and did not need faith in some certain point. That did not apply to this situation.

It was not my own faith. I did not own it. I did not generate it. It was purely the gift of God. So my point is that it was not me guessing about anything. Godly faith is not a guess. It is a substance, a particle of light and truth that abides in you according to the will of God. You can use it wisely or trash it until it goes away. For it can depart from you. When it is real and not of yourself it can leave you to yourself.

[_sock puppet]

Religionists often prize faith (hope in that which is not seen, and they yet do not know if it is true and thus cannot know if their hopes are 'faith' or simply misplaced) over knowledge based on evidence (what Mormon scripture calls 'perfect knowledge').

Ironically, their god will not punish someone whose hopes turn out to be misplaced (if Mormonism is right, then Methodists had misplaced hopes, not faith) nearly as harshly as someone that rejects evidence-based, 'perfect' knowledge. So obviously their god realizes that evidence-based knowledge is more reliable and that those that do not have such knowledge, but just guessed wrong should not be punished so harshly as those that have the evidence-based knowledge and reject it. In either event, the person did not accept and promote Mormonism, but depending on whether the reason was that you just had misplaced hope in Methodist beliefs or that you rejected evidence-based knowledge of Mormonism's truth claims, the result is vastly different.

So it seems rather inconsistent for Mormons to value faith because of its lack of evidence when their god obviously puts more stock in evidence-based knowledge.

[_Scottie]

Someone once pontificated that faith is the power source that controls all of the atoms in the universe.

We are gods in embryo, learning faith here so that we might be able to control the elements when the time comes to be gods.

They also speculated that it really doesn't matter what religion we believe in, just so long as we are growing in faith.

[_zeezrom]

Someone once pontificated that faith is the power source that controls all of the atoms in the universe.

We are gods in embryo, learning faith here so that we might be able to control the elements when the time comes to be gods.

They also speculated that it really doesn't matter what religion we believe in, just so long as we are growing in faith.

This would explain how mountains can be moved with faith. If you could get down to the atomic structure of every rock and grain of sand in the whole mountain, then I guess you could do it.

[_Buffalo]

Someone once pontificated that faith is the power source that controls all of the atoms in the universe.

We are gods in embryo, learning faith here so that we might be able to control the elements when the time comes to be gods.

They also speculated that it really doesn't matter what religion we believe in, just so long as we are growing in faith.

When you realize that faith is nothing more or less than gullibility, a statement like that makes much more sense.

[_sock puppet]

Someone once pontificated that faith is the power source that controls all of the atoms in the universe.

Did that person explain a logical nexus about hoping for something without evidence of its existence gives you power over atoms? It's certainly not intuitive.

[_zeezrom]

Evidence that faith for many people is fear-based: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18679&start=42

Please refer to my latest post