What Is Faith?

It's worked for about 2,000 years, works for me. Simple words, difficult choices.

He has found the treasure which was hidden in his own being.

20 Rolls Royces help too.

:P

By your reasoning, faithlessness and materialism are also virii passed on to children by their caregivers.

Even more broadly, values that we obtain from external sources are meme?

Faithlessness is based on reason and science; it is not ingrained by parents. They are provable items. It takes childhood manipulation to believe in the big imaginary daddy in the sky, especially to believe in it enough to fly an airplane into a building in the name of that daddy. Materialism isn't the same, as things are needed. Food, shelter, clothing, defense - all are quite needed for survival, and that need can be demonstrated. The hyper-consumptionism of today is a learned behavior, but not without source.

It takes childhood manipulation to believe in the big imaginary daddy in the sky

This is untrue. Kids do not constrain their idea of "what is" to empirical evidence. They make things up. Constantly. They have imaginary friends. Convince themselves that the floor is hot lava. Rain is god peeing. Their stuffed animals come to life when nobody is around. There are small people inside the television. No manipulation is needed!

You either had a very dour childhood or don't remember your childhood very well. Children take to religion easily because their entire worldviews are based upon principles just as fuzzy. I'm not talking about what grown-ups tell them - I'm talking about what they make up and tell one another.

Further, I have found that the most feverent believers in western civilization are those who come to it later in life. The born-again Christians.

. Materialism isn't the same, as things are needed.

That's not materialism. Materialism isn't fulfilling your physical needs, it's about acquisition and consumption.

That only last until about age 13. Once the child is physically and somewhat psychologically capable of independence they rarely blindly believe their parents. In fact defying them and rejecting the parent's beliefs is a healthy sign.

In my kids case, it's pretty much happened by ages 5 and 7. I told them there's no Santa Claus and they don't believe me.

Convince themselves that the floor is hot lava.

My kids love to play "lava monster tag" at the park. Of course, that *is* make-believe.

My son *does* come up with some pretty wacky notions that he insists with all sincerity are true.

That's not materialism. Materialism isn't fulfilling your physical needs, it's about acquisition and consumption.

So true. Even when it comes to "needs", things are so subjective. Some folks feel like they absolutely *need* to have a Hummer.

What we need to survive tends to be far less than what we feel comfortable living with (hence our national tendency towards obesity).

Nice, John.

What is not faith?

I agree with you.

In discussions with atheists and science-fans, I've argued that we have faith that the scientific method is serving us well and we have faith in our doctors.

They've tried to distinguish between "faith" and "trust", contending that faith has no basis in "fact", while trust does. To me, though, they're really two words that mean almost the same thing.

Faith is in this context a verb, as opposed to a noun. The action of driving you too/take because you believed/believe it will be safe gives you the confidence to actually do it! Ergo, it is a done deed - it all comes down to trust! What do we trust? In this case it is a system of Law's and Traffic Signals adding maybe a map etc.

However let us go now to Gods written word - ie. The Holy Bible. Now we enter a situation without a tangable backup system! What now do you trust and what actions will you take?

I'm not sure if I follow you, dabonboza.

I will say, though, that nothing's certain, even when it comes to laws and traffic signals. There aren't red light cameras on every corner (yet). At 2:00 AM, there are folks who will run a red light. With regularity, I see folks blow through stop signs in front of me. How do we know that, each time a police officer turns on the sirens and runs a light, that there was an actual emergency? Also, what assurance is there that laws are fairly applied and that a prominent local businessperson is treated the same as an out-of-town ethnic minority?

As for scripture, there may *seemingly* be fewer assurances that the guidance they give us is worthwhile, but we can judge their trustworthiness by the results we get when we apply (to the degree we *do* apply) scriptural precepts in our lives.

I at no time implied that faith in the traffic system is to be absolute or blind! Only a fool would ignore the flow of traffic etc... However; when we speak about God - Faith is blind and absolute! Example: Jesus went to the cross on the word of the FAther that he would be raised in three days and be given all power and glory etc... That is the ultimate Faith action. Blind Trust in God! Does this mean we jump of a cliff or other stupid action? No way. Gods word clearly tells us not to take such actions. I say AMEN.

I am one that Trusts God's Word implicitly. If he said it - it is so, end of story.

Well, but the question is: did God say it, or did some human make it up? One could go by one's own experience of God speaking to him/her, but then there is still the question, was it God, the Devil, or one's own mind?

It comes down to faith. There are no mundane assurances.

It comes down to faith. There are no mundane assurances.

Well! The Christian belief system allows for the assurance that heaven awaits those that Trust/have Faith in God. Jesus had Faith in the Father and we place our Faith in Christ. The Faith of Christ is our Salvation - Grace By Faith. This is hardly mundane :-) It is not about us at all really. Simple truth is there is nothing that I can do or not do to receive this gift of Grace - it is about Jesus the Christ and what he did.