Definitions of Faith

by Shawn10538 31 Replies latest jw friends

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  Shawn10538

  I just had an interesting conversation, though frustrating, with a student about the subject of faith. I have never heard a definition for faith that I could understand. Every conversation I have had on the subject has only fallen short of establishing what it is. With every new xdefinition of it, I still end up asking, "yeah, but what IS it?" Confusing the isasue further is Heb. 11:1 which seems in some translations to say that faith is itself the "evidence". So, the evidence that the earth is a sphere is that you can encircle the globe in an airplane and end up where you started. So, in this case faith is the flight you made around the world? If faith is a synonym for "evidence" as Heb. seems to say, then why do we need the word faith? Why not just say "evidence" instead of faith?

  I'd love to see some definitions for faith that you all can come up with. My suspicion is that there is no such thing as faith and that it is a muddled concept at best, poorly defined and unknown to anyone.
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  Gopher

  1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions

  2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust

  
  3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
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  Gopher

  I'd describe religious faith as belief in things that are unseen, but which you wish to believe in or you are told to believe in.

  Even in the Bible, it is stated that once you see a thing, faith ends because you have seen it.
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  emy the infidel

  Shawn, what are your feelings positive or negative regarding the future?

  Whatever your answer, since there is no way to know concretely, that would be faith.

  Either way, you probably have no trouble believing there will be a future.

  Just a small, admittedly simple, comparison.
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  jaguarbass

  Faith is believing in something that you know just aint so. Believing the impossible.
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  journey-on

  To me faith is an inner KNOWING. That sounds simple, but it's kind of like just knowing the sun is going to be visible in the morning when you awaken.

  Attaining that ability to just "know" is the hard part. That takes work, study, knowing the facts, seeing the evidence, experiencing things that build toward that KNOWING.

  Take the example of the sun rising. You read and study the science behind it; you understand the mechanics of it; you have watched it happen all your life every morning;

  you have reason to "believe" it is going to happen again in the morning without a doubt. You just "know" it.
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  Shawn10538

  So, faith is just another word for belief? I've offered that as a definition to many Christians and they never agree with me. Especially JWs who say that they believe based on evidence, not based on nothing. In fact Heb. says directly that faith IS evidence (KJ). So there seems to be a contradiction between the dictionary and the Bible.

  Heb. 11:1 says faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (KJ) Diagram this sentence - Faith is:substance and evidence. How does one reconcile Heb. 11:1 with the definition that faith is merely a type of belief? And if you use the NWT you get a whole different definition. Faith is: expectation and demonstration.

  So, faith seems to be a synonym for several words at the same time: substance, evidence, expectation, demonstration, loyalty, hope and belief.

  The more you try to really nail down what it is, it just branches off and becomes muddled. Does anyone else out there have a hard time defining faith?
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  Zico

  I agree with your first post that it refers to evidence. I would suggest the reason it's given it's own word, is because it refers to a specific type of evidence.
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  Shawn10538

  Actually, you don't "just know" the sun is coming up. You know it because it has been proven through science that it is there, and the world is spinning, so as long as the world does not stop spinning, we will see the sun "rise." Where is faith needed if there is evidence or even proof available? I'm pretty sure no one thionks that belief in the sun requires faith. The sun is observable with more than one of our senses. One does not need faith to believe in the sun, unless you are saying that faith IS belief, in which case, again, the concept becomes muddled and dubious.

  I think the concept of faith was invented by intellectual hacks whoi were too lazy to do the real work required to establish truth or fact. This is why whenever you back a Bible thumper into a corner he runs to seek refuge in the vague concept of faith. It is common for a "faithful person" to say, I don't know why I believe, I just do. From that point on, the faithful person does not have to do anymore work towards compiling evidence, creating hypothesis, testing the hypothesis and drawing conclusions.
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  Undecided

  Faith is about like a little child thinking Santa is coming at Christmas. They have been told it is going to happen by someone they trust and they have faith it will happen. The only difference is Christ is comming .........don't know when, but he is comming soon. You had better be a good little child or you won't get your present from Santa or Christ when he comes. One is about as true as the other.

  Ken P.