Why is faith good?

ElRoberto

Why is faith described as a virtue?

Faith by definition is a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Why do some people describe faith as a good thing?

Zombrex

Probably good to define what you mean by "faith" first, some posters on this forum have some, er, peculiar ideas as to what "faith" means.

ElRoberto

@Wicknight

I guess the kind of faith I mean is faith that there exists a deity that answers prayers, created the universe and is all powerful. It's a simple question that I'm not sure the religious community asks themselves.

alex73

ElRoberto wrote: »

@Wicknight

I guess the kind of faith I mean is faith that there exists a deity that answers prayers, created the universe and is all powerful. It's a simple question that I'm not sure the religious community asks themselves.

Why did you pick Christianity to for the Thread. That God exists and Created the world and is all powerful is found in most religions.

As a Christian we follow Christ and his teaching and if you followed his message to the letter then the world would be a better place.

For example - Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [Matthew 7:12]. If this were lived then today you would not have thousand dying of hunger in Somalia.

PDN

ElRoberto wrote: »

Why is faith described as a virtue?

Faith by definition is a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Why do some people describe faith as a good thing?

Faith is when someone, based on the evidence God has given them, chooses to trust God and follow them.

People describe that as a good thing because it is beneficial for us and helps us become better people.

ElRoberto

alex73 wrote: »

Why did you pick Christianity to for the Thread. That God exists and Created the world and is all powerful is found in most religions.

As a Christian we follow Christ and his teaching and if you followed his message to the letter then the world would be a better place.

For example - Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [Matthew 7:12]. If this were lived then today you would not have thousand dying of hunger in Somalia.

I'm Irish so christianity is the religion that I'm around the most. I also picked christianity because I was under the impression that it considers faith a virtue and has faith in a deity that I described above.

Christianity as a source for morality is a weak arguement. There are too many cases of evil being done in the name of christianity or else becasue of it.

ElRoberto

PDN wrote: »

Faith is when someone, based on the evidence God has given them, chooses to trust God and follow them.

People describe that as a good thing because it is beneficial for us and helps us become better people.

Do you feel like faith is the suspension of rational thinking?

PDN

ElRoberto wrote: »

Do you feel like faith is the suspension of rational thinking?

No. You would need to be an ignoramus of the highest order to reach such a conclusion.

ElRoberto

PDN wrote: »

No. You would need to be an ignoramus of the highest order to reach such a conclusion.

But do you have faith that Jesus was the son of an all powerful deity? Do you believe that he died and was resurrected 3 days later?

PDN

ElRoberto wrote: »

But do you have faith that Jesus was the son of an all powerful deity? Do you believe that he died and was resurrected 3 days later?

Yes, I do. The evidence leads me to reach that rational conclusion. You, of course, are entitled to think differently - and you have an Atheism & Agnosticism Forum where you can proclaim your views to your heart's content. There is also an Atheist/Christian debate thread in this forum where you are free to enter into debates. But simply characterising those who disagree with you as therefore being irrational is the attitude of either a troll or a fool.

As I am neither a troll nor a fool I accept that atheists etc, while they might hold some rather silly beliefs, are not therefore suspending rational thinking.

ElRoberto

PDN wrote: »

Yes, I do. The evidence leads me to reach that rational conclusion. You, of course, are entitled to think differently - and you have an Atheism & Agnosticism Forum where you can proclaim your views to your heart's content. There is also an Atheist/Christian debate thread in this forum where you are free to enter into debates. But simply characterising those who disagree with you as therefore being irrational is the attitude of either a troll or a fool.

As I am neither a troll nor a fool I accept that atheists etc, while they might hold some rather silly beliefs, are not therefore suspending rational thinking.

What evidence? I'm not an atheist, I'm a rationalist. I don't claim that I know what happens after death but when someone tells me that you go to heavan I ask "How do you know?!".

ElRoberto

When somebody tells me Jesus was the son of god and came back to life after three days I again ask "How do you know?".

PDN

Since you seem unable to understand the concept of the Atheist/Christian debate thread I guess we'll have to lock this one.