Faith or Blind Faith

Letty- I think that there is faith, and there is reason, and they are not compatible. With blind faith, the person is so emotionally connected to the irrational, that he will ignore and or deride anything that questions his faith. To the average person of faith, the concepts that has faith as its underpinnings can be tempered by subsequent knowledge.

IMO the people who are have blind faith believe in things that they consider unknowable. I believe that everything is knowable, but simply unknown at this time. If you think about how people lived 100 years ago, many of the things that we do (go out in space, walk around with little gadgets that allow one to talk with people all over the world, DNA, etc.) would have been far beyond their consciousness. What is unknown today, may very well be commonplace in the future.

I agree, but I leave open the possibility that the unknown (or some part of it) may become known as otherworldly. I don't mean in terms of an already defined deity (although, who knows, someone may have actually guessed right), but in terms of a greater force than man that can be defined as spirit.

Ros, to me, blind faith is the refusal to accept that one's chosen deity and dogma represent anything but absolute Truth, whereas faith is the reliance on hope that there is/was a greater power.

I think much of what people spend their lives doing is living in the faith of an afterlife. Most religious dogma is that which describes how one gets the best deal the next time around, be it on earth through reincarnation or in a heaven or sorts. It avoids the dilemma of figuring out the meaning of life when the meaning of life is to get to the next life.

In simplistic terms, those without faith tend to think this is it - make the best of this life because you don't get another shot at it later. Those with blind faith tend to think they and only those who think/profess like them have the right path (righteousness). Those in the middle think (wonder?) that there may be a something next, don't necessarily think they've got the only keys to the lock but live a life with a direction towards next steps.

Then again, Spendi has provided another valid interpretation.

I like John's definition.



Instant Karma

I have been thinking a lot about this. I believe you all are right when you say blind faith is not good. I do believe you should be knowledgeable about what you believe in and have reasons for it.

Since Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen, I have to follow my own convictions by education, and by how my heart is stirred by what my mind comprehends. It may mean that people look down on me, scoff at my beliefs or say that what I believe is impossible. I mean this in many instances...the world being round, the possiblility of bieng able to fly...many other like things, and I do believe it applies to religious faith as well. The simple truth is that many who had faith, continued on in their belief until it was proven.

I will do the same.

Faith is belief and/or trust in something that may or may not turn out as hoped for and that cannot be proved to somebody else, but for which there is a basis of personal experience and/or logic undergirding it.

Blind faith is a decision to believe or trust something without question and in the face of logic or contrary evidence.

So would it be fair to say that "faith" is synonymous with "hope" for you?

For example, you wrote this:

But it seems like I could replace it with this:

So for you the difference between Faith and Blind Faith is that Blind Faith is a belief which is held in spite of much reasoning and evidence to the contrary, but the softer form of Faith is a belief which is held only when there is no logic or reasoning or evidence which contradicts it.

hmmm... no, not quite. I think hope is a component of faith but faith has a stronger conviction than simply hope. Although there are some people who maintain a faith tradition and participate in rituals and other dogma "just in case" that to me isn't faith. Faith carries a certain acceptance that is stronger than hope.

"I believe .... and this makes sense to me" is faith. "My faith is the one true faith and the rest of you are ... wrong/going to hell/should be killed/etc." is blind faith.

From what I've understood of others, faith seems to be connected with a kind of supra-personal guiding force/principle in their life which is sometimes imbued with human qualities. What struck me in the past with this idea of faith is that it was not faith in something but faith in the whole experience of life as it were. It reminds me of Joseph Campbell who often talked about a path in life which is forged step by step and so I think it is the feeling of opening yourself up to this mystery unfolding rather than closing yourself off from it.

My impression was always that it was a momentary product of being in harmony or accord with your environment/activity/people. I mean we spend so much time inside our shells looking out and taking this perspective for granted that when we find ourselves so in sync with the moment, the shell kind of dissolves a little. It’s not hard to imagine the next step of interpreting this as making a connection with something. Just like most people we meet we get on fine with maybe but every now and then we meet someone we just click with.

I don’t know whether others here can relate to this or whether my impressions of peoples experiences are too narrow though. On the other hand blind faith could be seen as identifying the experience/notion/intuition, however you want to call it, with specific dogma. So where as faith as I’ve described it above leaves the path and life’s possibilities open in a really quite affirmative of life manner . . . blind faith is very specific and narrow. At least that’s the way it seems when the insult is used.