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Re: Rational Thought and Faith » Dr. Bob

Posted by IsoM on October 17, 2002, at 0:58:52

In reply to Re: Rationalism and Philosophy, posted by Dr. Bob on October 16, 2002, at 21:59:37

Okay, Bob, I said I wasn't going to add anything to the PB Faith board but I'd like to point out something about the definition of faith.

Faith as defined by a dictionary is different than the way the Bible defines faith at Hebrews 11:1. There is says that "faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for (or the substance of things hoped for - KJ version), the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld (the evidence of things not seen - KJ version).

This meaning is different than a dictionary's definition as it doesn't imply blind faith at all, but suggests reasoning or rational thought - looking for evidence of the said unseen things. For faith to be worthwhile, it should be based on demonstrative evidence of the unseen. Maybe there's not hard proof but there should be sense & logic backing up a person's faith. There should be tangible evidence that can be shown to back up one's beliefs - much like black holes are unseen but there's strong evidence to back up a belief in them. That's the sort of faith that's meant in the Bible.

So faith is NOT credulity. Much like a scientist has faith in the reliability of the laws of physics & chemistry so when he/she bases the results of his/her experiments, he/she is relying on the demonstration of these laws without needing to redo each step along the way over & over. There's been evident demonstration of these laws for thousands of years now.

Why did churches ever come up with the idea of blind faith or unconditional faith? I suppose if one claims to use the Bible as the basis for a belief system but then adds or distorts what's in it, it may be a very good idea to change or cloud the definition of faith. Stops people from questioning what's taught & merely accepting that what is taught must come from the Bible. It pays to check things out whatever it is.


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poster:IsoM thread:1086
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021001/msgs/1111.html