Faith

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Faith is a belief, trust, or confidence, not based merely on logic, reason, or empirical data, but based fundamentally on volition often associated with a transpersonal relationship with God, a higher power, a person, elements of nature, and/or a perception of the human race as a whole. Faith can be placed in a person, inanimate object, state of affairs, proposition or body of propositions such as a religious credit//.

Faith is distinct from hope in that faith is typically general, rather than specific to an aspect, and in contrast to a "false hope" in a fantasy, the object of faith typically transcends what can be proven scientifically and sometimes exceeds what can be objectively defined. Faith can mean believing unconditionally. It can be acceptance of something that one has been told by one who is considered trustworthy. Faith, by its very nature, requires belief outside of known fact. Faith is formed through instinct, intuition, meditation, communing with nature, prayer, or perceived usefulness of a belief system. The raison d' etre for faith seems to lie in the fact that to some who have attained to a sufficient depth of it, it 'works' in lieu of, or even in addition to, rational reason, logic and science. In other words, faith and reason to some are 'inimical' while, to some others, both work in their respective spheres and in particular sets of circumstances. It is thus that we have scientists on the one hand - including for example top notch ones such as Erwin Schrodinger, Wernher von Braun, Albert Einstein - and religious and spiritual masters, on the other, who hold that faith and reason will both be necessary in order to comprehend reality in all its mystery, since reason is necessarily conditioned by just the four dimensions of space (comprising three dimensions as its elements) and time (one dimension) and as such rational reasoning, or faith, alone can only scratch the surface of reality. Those who understand limitations of reasoning point out that the mere knowledge of the micro organisms and the macro cosmos through science and application of engineering and technology, will never be able to satisfy the deepest urges of human curiosity and wonderment, and even be sufficient for ensuring the survival and thriving of countless species of organic beings.

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[edit] Context and usage

Although faith has generated many roots in religion, it is not necessarily a religious word and is not exercised solely in God and god alone, but can apply to any situation where judgments are made irrespective of evidence.

Faith in something means to have experience with that something and then, due to this experience, judging and concluding so that you can predict an action of this something in a positive way. So for example a sister may leave the house for university, she returns in three years time to find her sister has not opened her diary which she explicitly asked her not too, even though her sister had every opportunity to open it without her knowledge or consent. The older sister would now have faith in the younger sister, judging by that experience she concludes that she can predict that anything else she trusts with here sister is safe. This is faith.

[edit] Faith as the basis for human knowledge

Many noted philosophers and theologians have espoused the idea that faith is the basis of all knowledge. One example is St. Augustine of Hippo. Known as one of his key contributions to philosophy, the idea of "faith seeking understanding" was set forth by St. Augustine in his statement "Crede, ut intelligas" ("Believe in order that you may understand"). This statement extends beyond the sphere of religion to encompass the totality of knowledge. In essence, faith must be present in order to know anything. In other words, one must assume, believe, or have faith in the credibility of a person, place, thing, or idea in order to have a basis for knowledge.

One illustration of this concept is in the development of knowledge in children. A child typically holds parental teaching as credible, in spite of the child's lack of sufficient research to establish such credibility empirically. That parental teaching, however fallible, becomes a foundation upon which future knowledge is built. The child’s faith in his/her parents teaching is based on a belief in their credibility. Unless/until the child’s belief in their parents’ credibility is superseded by a stronger belief, the parental teaching will serve as a filter through which other teaching must be processed and/or evaluated. Following this line of reasoning, and assuming that children have finite or limited empirical knowledge at birth, it follows that faith is the fundamental basis of all knowledge one has. Even adults attribute their basis of knowledge to so called "authorities" in a given field of study. This is true because one simply does not have the time or resources to evaluate all of his/her knowledge empirically and exhaustively. "Faith" is used instead.

It is sometimes argued that even scientific knowledge is dependent on 'faith' - for example, faith that the researcher responsible for an empirical conclusion is competent, and honest. Indeed, distinguished chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi argued that scientific discovery begins with a scientist's faith that an unknown discovery is possible. Scientific discovery thus requires a passionate commitment to a result that is unknowable at the outset. Polanyi argued that the scientific method is not an objective method removed from man's passion. On the contrary, scientific progress depends primarily on the unique capability of free man to notice and investigate patterns and connections, and on the individual scientist's willingness to commit time and resources to such investigation, which usually must begin before the truth is known or the benefits of the discovery are imagined, let alone understood fully.

Faith by definition is not related to proof. The main focus of faith is trust. It could then be argued that until one possesses all knowledge in totality one will need faith in order to believe an understanding to be correct or incorrect in total affirmation.

Philosopher Descartes sought to challenge this idea in his statement "I think, therefore I am." It has however been argued that even the statement "I think" is based on faith in the existence of a thing called "thought."

[edit] Religious faith

Sometimes, faith means a belief in a relationship with a deity. In this case, "faith" is used in the sense of "fidelity." Such a commitment need not be blind or submissive though often shares these types of characteristics. For many Jews, for example, the Hebrew Bible and Talmud depict a committed but contentious relationship between their God and the Children of Israel. For quite a lot of people, faith or the lack thereof, is an important part of their identity, for example a person who identifies himself or herself as a Muslim or a skeptic.

A certain number of religious rationalists, as well as non-religious people, criticize implicit faith as being irrational, and see faith as ignorance of reality: a strong belief in something with no tangible proof, or in spite of opposing evidence. In this view, belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or evidence and nothing should be believed unless supported by the Scientific method. With a sense of irony, the accusation is sometimes made that the Scientific method is grounded in faith in positivism. Others say faith is perfectly compatible with and does not necessarily contradict reason.

Sometimes, faith means a belief in the existence of a deity, and can be used to distinguish individual belief in deities from belief in deities within religion. However it can also be used in context of belief in deities within religions. Many Jews, Christians and Muslims claim that there is adequate historical evidence of their God's existence and interaction with human beings. As such, they may believe that there is no need for "faith" in God in the sense of belief against or despite evidence; rather, they hold that evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that their God certainly exists, and that particular beliefs, concerning who or what their God is and why this God is to be trusted, are vindicated by evidence and logic.

No historical evidence has managed to convince the entirety of the community of historians on earth that any one religion is true. For people in this category, "faith" in a God simply means "belief that one has knowledge of [any particular] God". It is logically impossible that all these different religions with their mutually contradictory beliefs can simultaneously be objectively true. Therefore, most historians with religious beliefs hold others to be "false", or essentially wrong. This is a standard tenet of most religions as well, though there are exceptions. An example of this is some forms of Hinduism, which hold the view that the several different faiths are just aspects of the ultimate truth that the several religions have difficulty describing or understanding. They see the different religions as just different paths to the same goal. This does not explain away all logical contradictions between faiths but these traditions say that all seeming contradictions will be understood once a person has an experience of the Hindu concept of moksha.

What is believed concerning God, in other words, is a matter of faith supported - but not replaced by - facts.

Some religious believers – and many of their critics – often use the term "faith" as the affirmation of belief without an ongoing test of evidence, and even despite evidence apparently to the contrary. Most Jews, Christians and Muslims admit that whatever particular evidence or reason they may possess that their God exists and is deserving of trust, is not ultimately the basis for their believing. Thus, in this sense faith refers to belief beyond evidence or logical arguments, sometimes called "implicit faith". Another form of this kind of faith is fideism: one ought to believe that God exists, but one should not base that belief on any other beliefs; one should, instead, accept it without any reasons at all. Faith in this sense, grounded simply in the sincerity of faith, belief on the basis of believing, is often associated with Søren Kierkegaard for example, and some other existentialist religious thinkers; his views are presented in Fear and Trembling. William Sloane Coffin counters that faith is not acceptance without proof, but trust without reservation.

[edit] Judaism

Although Judaism does recognize the positive value of Emunah (faith/belief) and the negative status of the Apikorus (heretic) the specific tenets that compose required belief and their application to the times have been heatedly disputed throughout Jewish history. Many, but not all, Orthodox Jews have accepted Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Belief.

A traditional example of faith as seen in the Jewish annals is found in the person of Abraham. A number of occasions, Abraham both accepts statements from God that seem impossible and offers obedient actions in response to direction from God to do things that seem implausible (see Genesis 12-15).

For a wide history of this dispute, see: Shapira, Marc: The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Series).)


[edit] Christianity

Main article: Faith in Christianity

Faith is one of the most powerful concepts and teachings of Jesus Christ, as documented in the New Testament of the Bible. As one indication of the dramatic change in consciousness that came with the arrival of Jesus in human history, the word faith appears only twice in the Old Testament, but appears 245 times in the New Testament. The modern interpretations of faith in Christianity differ somewhat among various Christian traditions.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, refers to "one faith." Peter tells his audience of the blessing that comes to the one who has faith in Acts 2. James says that faith without works is dead. Biblically speaking, faith is not man’s response to the work of God; rather, it is God’s gift to man (Ephesians 2:8-10)—so that man may see God’s goodness, responding in good works (Romans 2:4). Many Christians use faith and belief interchangeably. While others use the man in Mark 9:24 as an example; he says "I believe; help my unbelief!” (ESV).

The definition of this quality for Christians can be narrowed to the scriptural text in Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (NIV). Some note the focus here is not on intellectual belief, or even conscious assent to any idea, but on a state of being. What follows in chapter 11 of Hebrews is a recitation of the various Old Testament examples of people acting on their faith. In the large world of those who look at Jesus as their Lord, the traditional debate on faith is whether faith brings about salvation or is given as a sign of salvation (Ephesians 2:8). This debate extends into the realm of translating the New Testament text: is it faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ that saves? The answer for many is both. We are able to exercise faith in Jesus Christ because he was faithful and therefore he is able to give the gift of faith. Within the Christian tradition the aforementioned ideas are common among Protestants and Catholics, but outside these traditional concepts of faith The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) have very similar, but distinct differences in regards to faith. The Mormon view of faith is seen as the very moving force of the universe. Faith is not mere belief without knowledge. Faith without works is dead just as the body without the spirit is dead because just as the body needs its spirit to give life, so does faith need the Holy Ghost. While faith is obviously not perfect knowledge there must be some spiritual evidence to qualify as faith. This is most easily explained as a spectrum with no spiritual knowledge on one end and perfect spiritual knowledge on the other. In the beginning all we need is hope as our motivation, but as we obey Gods commandments he gives us the gift of faith through the Holy Ghost. That begins our journey of faith, we build line upon line precept upon precept. (Isaiah 28:10) That faith while sometimes coming in powerful experiences, most often is transmitted through everyday right choices. Then if we have been faithful and held nothing back from God, our faith we eventually become perfect, mean we no longer need faith, but have perfect knowledge of God. Faith is the vehicle God uses to bring us back into his presence.(See Romans 3:22, δια πιστεως Ιησου Χριστου)

[edit] Islam

Faith in Islam is called iman. It is a whole-person submission to The One God (Allah) which includes belief in the heart, profession by the tongue, and the body's performance of deeds consistent with our commission as vicegerent on Earth according to Allah's will. The spiritual heart is the seat or foundation of iman.

Belief in the heart has two aspects. First, it means recognizing and affirming that there is but one Creator of the universe and only to this Creator is our worship due. According to Islamic thought, this comes naturally because faith is an instinct of the human soul. This instinct is then trained via parents or guardians into specific religious or spiritual paths. Likewise, the instinct may not be guided at all.

Second, belief in the heart includes the willingness and commitment to submitting to the truth that Allah exists and to His prescriptions for living in accordance with vicegerency. The Quran (Koran) is the dictation of Allah's prescriptions through Prophet Muhammad and is understood to have updated and completed previous revelation Allah sent through earlier prophets.

Profession by the tongue in Islam means testifying that one believes in The One God - Allah - who has no partners, and indicating that one intends to be committed to adhering to the guidance and prescriptions from Allah through the Prophet Muhammad. The profession of faith must be accompanied with sincere efforts to follow the guidance and prescriptions from the Quran and the way of implementation shown by the Prophet Muhammad, called the sunnah.

Belief in the heart as defined above and testimony, if sincere, naturally results in actions that are consistent with vicegerency. The degree to which belief does not flow into appropriate deeds indicate what Muslim scholars call diseases of the heart, such as arrogance, envy, greed, pride, etc. Of all aspects of iman, belief in the heart is the most important because it provides the momentum for one to manifest faith into one's life.

The religion of Islam requires accepting six articles of faith, out of which come what are called the five pillars of Islam (witnessing Allah; prayer; almsgiving; fasting; pilgrimage) with which people are more familiar.

The articles of faith in Islam are:

  • To believe in Allah
  • To believe in the Unseen
  • To believe in Revelation
  • To believe in Prophethood
  • To believe in the Day of Judgment
  • To believe in the Divine Decree (destiny)

Without recognizing, affirming, and accepting these articles of faith and committing to whatever comes through them, there is no context for the five pillars of Islam.

[edit] Buddhism

Faith (saddha/sraddha) is an important constituent element of the teachings of the Buddha - both in the Theravada tradition as in the Mahayana. Faith in Buddhism derives from the pali word saddhā, which often refers to a sense of conviction. The saddhā is often described as:

  • A conviction that something is
  • A determination to accomplish one's goals
  • A sense of joy deriving from the other two

While faith in Buddhism does not imply "blind faith", Buddhist faith (as advocated by the Buddha in various scriptures, or sutras) nevertheless requires a degree of trusting confidence and belief primarily in the spiritual attainment and salvational knowledge of the Buddha. Faith in Buddhism centers on belief in the Buddha as a supremely Awakened being, on his unexcelled role as teacher of both humans and gods, in the truth of his Dharma (spiritual Doctrine), and in his Sangha (community of spiritually developed followers). Faith in Buddhism functions as a form of motor, which propels the Buddhist practitioner towards the goal of Awakening (bodhi) and Nirvana.

As a counter to any form of "blind faith", the Buddha taught the Kalama Sutra, exhorting his disciples to investigate any teaching and weigh its merits rather than believing something outright.

For more, see Faith in Buddhism

[edit] Bahá'í Faith

In the Bahá'í Faith a personal faith is viewed as a progressive understanding an individual goes through to learn the truth for oneself, towards the end that one may learn of God, of oneself, and also develop a praiseworthy character (not simply by knowing the truth, but by living honorably in relation to it.) Different ways of learning the truth for oneself are all respected and culminate in a spirit of faith or indwelling spirit by which the Holy Spirit informs one's belief without recourse to senses, intellect, intuition, scripture, or experience and research. However such a state is not considered to be independent of the Revelation of God by which the great Prophets founded the religions, nor is it meant to act as a sure guide for others.

See the Role of faith in the Baha'i Faith

[edit] Rastafari

Faith to the Rastafarians implies knowledge of the divinity of Haile Selassie rather than belief in this proposition, as Rastas claim not to hold belief systems. The word faith does not hold such negative connotations. Their faith in Selassie as God, and as the being who is going to end their sufferings at the day of judgement when they will return to live in Africa under his rule is at the center of their lives. The dreadlocks are worn as an open declaration of faith in and loyalty towards Haile Selassie, while marijuana is seen to help cultivate a strong faith by bringing the faithful closer to God. Rastas have faith when 2 or more of them come together to reason about their religion that Haile Selassie is with them. Selassie is seen as both God the Father, who created Heaven and earth, and as God the Son, the Reincarnation of Jesus Christ. To complete the Holy Trinity the Holy Spirit is seen as being in the believers themselves, and within all human beings. The announcement of the death of Selassie in 1975 did not disturb the faith of the Rastas, who assumed that God cannot die, and that therefore the news was false. Rastas also have a faith in physical immortality, both for Haile Selassie and for themselves.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, W. W. Norton (2004), hardcover, 336 pages, ISBN 0-393-03515-8
  • Hein, David. "Faith and Doubt in Rose Macaulay's The Towers of Trebizond." Anglican Theological Review Winter2006, Vol. 88 Issue 1, p47-68.
  • Zarlengo, Michael. Pray Like This: God's Secret to Answered Prayer. Dallas, Texas: Michael Zarlengo Publishing, 2005.

[edit] Classic reflections on the nature of faith

[edit] The Reformation view of faith

[edit] External links

Look up faith in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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