Faith is silly.

Author: janesix

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I really don't understand faith. It seems a bit silly to believe in something you cannot prove, at least to yourself.

That being said, I suppose faith is useful, mainly for the purpose of not going insane.

For instance, I rely on faith that I exist, that there is a reality beyond me, that I have free will.
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@janesix
I know exactly what you mean. I must start with the assumption "this is real". I cannot falsify that assumption so it can never get beyond working hypothesis which is not a standard of much confidence really. 
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Faith is one of the silliest things around. This is true. And pop corn. That's also really weird.
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@janesix
Faith is a simple concept.

Faith is trusting something that you cannot be 100% certain of.

And anyone that says that they can be 100% certain of the existence of a GOD, is lying.

I am currently, approximately 99.9% certain that I am what I am.... An existent mass.....Nonetheless, the fundamental basis of my mass is a complete mystery.

Do I have faith in other things?......Obviously....Or  I would be too scared to do anything.

Though I can certainly, not be certain that everything will always go as expected.
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@rosends
yeah it's weird, even before it's popped. I've seen corn. It's squishy, with a lot of water content. Where does that super hard and shiny popcorn kernel come from? I'm mystified,
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@janesix

"Ever wonder where popcorn came from?" Asks this article. 
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@janesix
I really don't understand faith. It seems a bit silly to believe in something you cannot prove, at least to yourself.

It depends really, because from what I can tell most individuals have a faulty idea of what it is, what it means. It seems the general assumption is that faith means to accept or believe things for no reason or evidence, which basically strips it from having any real meaning at all. Faith, as in spiritual faith is supposed to have an actual function or have an actual useful meaning like most other spiritual tools.
I say there's probably three roles (definitions) or usages of faith with "believing in things with no reason or evidence" as the least of them, which is the weakest form of that term. In reality that makes faith a nonword. I mean what is it really to believe something with having no proof or rationale to support it? that's stupid because even to believe in something one must have at least reasoning behind it to accept it and honestly faith is much stronger than belief because it's another word for trust and confidence.

That's really all faith is at its core is to have very strong trust in someone or something. Religions just have their own words to describe something at a spiritual level so both faith and confidence can be used synonymously, however the average atheist would love to rehash the misconception that faith is to just believe in any ol thing with no reason or evidence. Because to them anything pertaining to spirituality is a joke and so that meaningless term just fits the bill for them.

But to have complete trust and confidence (faith) in something is to be based upon very strong reason and evidence no? of course, because one cannot have trust in something without there first being an element that undergirds such a level of confidence. You could say that a married couple who's been faithfully engaged with each other for decades has complete trust in the other person, and their faith in one another is grounded upon years of developing that confidence in one another through experience KNOWING that there is good reason and evidence to believe in their relationship.
If you read the Gospels where faith originated you can see very clearly how faith is depicted. It is based upon ones confidence in God, and ones confidence in God is rooted in experience and good reason, which makes for levels of faith ranging from "small (little) to big (great) faith".  "Ye of little faith....ye of great faith".....Because each individual has their own level of trust for God based upon their experience and knowledge. The more experience, evidence and knowledge of God the greater the faith, and the less experience, evidence and knowledge of God the lesser the faith.
This is the second usage of the term faith which brings me to the the third now that we acknowledge faith is based upon strong supporting reason and experience (evidence) to have trust and confidence in something. Without strong reasoning and evidence there can be no trust and confidence in a thing.

The third and perhaps the most beneficial and solid form of faith is what I call an action. This is when a persons faith has become so refined and solidified that a person can put their "faith" in something and cause change, or invoke change. This is also clearly articulated in the Gospels when Jesus talks about faith "moving mountains"....and of course we know Jesus was not talking about rearranging landscapes rather Jesus was saying that faith can be used as a way to bring about results in a persons life (to move obstacles). When a persons confidence and trust (faith) has become an immovable force it can be applied to anything and the potential for anything to happen becomes a reality, they can literally move "mountains", of course that being figurative language to mean "bring about results".
You can see that faith is a universal tool, and people all throughout history have used faith to change the world in many respects, faith can even be used in relation to sports or anything there is a passion to achieve something great. When a person believes (has faith) without wavering (confidence) they can achieve whatever it is they set their faith to. And when you add God to the equation the sky is the limit to what faith can accomplish.

This is somewhat of a rare state to see in this world and you don't see it very often, but there are many examples of people having great faith to change the coarse of the world. Martin Luther King stands out to me at the moment of someone who had great faith to change the world in a time where it seemed impossible to change. His faith overrided reality. But there are many more examples with Jesus being one of them.
People don't really recognize what he did through faith because Christianity has become such a generic force, with little meaning behind it anymore. But in reality Jesus resurfaced the face of religion in a time where religious force ruled the world. Think about one man for a short amount of time coming in and overturning the whole system! Jesus did that with faith being the main source of His achievement. He died for it sure, but not without changing the whole world and how people viewed God. I don't even have to use Jesus as an example, I'm sure you get the point. The point is that faith actually has a legit meaning, even though it's simply trust and confidence given another name. It's anything but "silly".

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@janesix
To put it in terms that Janesix could possibly relate to better, I would say that faith could also be called a force for the channeling of energy. And the amount of energy (faith) that can be channeled is unlimited. Once you understand that religions make up terms for experiences, laws or principles they observe that may already have a meaning or word then somethings can be better articulated. For example "Karma" which is just another term for the law of cause and effect, "sin" is just another word for bad behavior, "reincarnation" is just another word for life after death and the transmigration of the soul to another experience, being "saved" is just another way of saying spiritual development, "revelation" is another term for awakening or enlightenment and so forth. And of course "faith" is simply another word for strong trust and confidence, faith then being grounded upon good reason and evidence. 


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Say you have faith in a spouse people don't question you. Say you have faith in an afterlife and the word has no meaning?  The word and concept haven't changed but it's no longer meaningful? Come on who is not being honest here. 
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Faith is kind of subjective so it really makes more sense when paired with a concrete noun like spouse rather than with an ambiguous term like afterlife which means different things to different people. If you want to get down to brass tacks even saying you have faith in a spouse doesn't always mean the same thing. Context is everything. You can have faith in your spouse not to cheat sure but you could also have faith in their ability to help you through adversity or to remember to pick up the kids. If one were to say they have faith in an afterlife they would have to qualify exactly what they mean by faith and by afterlife. 

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@secularmerlin
Afterlife in the simplest terms is the spirit existing after death. The details of where are irrelevant and side tracking to keep from discussing the topic.