Diversita wrote:I'm looking through all of this and I'm noticing a common problem in that so many people, both theistic in one sense, and atheistic in another are confusing the difference between faith, belief and fact. To look at the theistic issue, a faith or a belief is not a fact. It's not something that has been proven. It's something that either our minds tell us(belief) or our hearts tell us(faith) as a way of filling the void until the facts do become known. Giving away the answer to what I said earlier, I am a theist (I could so easily have not been, btw), but the point about belief and faith is not that we know but that we either believe or feel.
Turning now against the atheist side, (btw, you're normally the people I can best relate to, regardless of my faith because why should faith get in the way of that), there's a mistake in thinking that theistic beliefs/faiths are the only beliefs/faiths out there. Because of this, belief and faith often gets derogatised as a crutch. Yes it is a crutch and I'm happy to walk around with a crutch. Why wouldn't I? Would you tell a person with a broken leg to throw their crutch away. Thing is, faith and belief is a crutch that everyone needs. It doesn't have to be a theistic faith or a theistic belief. If you have faith in humanity, you have faith. If you have faith in your family/friends, you have faith. If you only have faith in yourself, that is faith. It's not theistic faith but it's no less a crutch. And crutches are okay. Because in such an inhospitable world as we're in where we don't even know if we'll survive today, we all need something to give us the mental strength to face it nonetheless. Because Elysium help anyone who responds to the coming darkness by closing their minds and their hearts to it.
Anyway. I could say more to that. If you want to debate it, feel free but at least think about what I've said first because something that, theists most especially but atheists too, too many people need to learn is that in order to talk, you also have to listen. And listening isn't done with the ears; only hearing is.
Oh. And one piece of advice for everyone; whether your faith is in yourself or in gods, don't spend too much time looking up because your feet is what you need to stand on and they're not above you.
I think there’s an important caveat to theistic belief in that it isn’t really based on anything.
For example, take the oft used argument that you have “belief” that when you sit in your chair, it isn’t going to break. Difference here is that there exists plenty of evidence to suggest the chair won’t break. I.e. you’ve sat in it several times before without it breaking, statistically chairs don’t break more often than not, the existence of chairs that currently have people sat in them not breaking, etc. Belief in a deity has none of this supporting evidence.
Faith is worse than belief, because faith is quite literally believing regardless of evidence. I could, for example, see all the evidence that suggests this chair won’t break, I could have someone sit in it in front of me, showing it won’t break. I could have a carpenter test the chair for stability and declare it safe. Yet, if I have faith that this chair
will break, then all of this evidence is meaningless. I’m just going to ignore it anyway.
Belief is shakey, but faith is foolish