Board index ‹ Faith and Knowledge

[Newbie]

To me, it's kind of silly to ask someone to defend faith with logic. That's the same as admitting they are wrong. "My beliefs are illogical, but I follow them anyway." Well? Why would you do that? Defend yourselves.

[jimwalton]

Faith, according to the Bible (and every one else, as far as I can tell, is an assumption of truth based on the evidence (and faith is always based on evidence) that makes it reasonable to make that assumption. When I go to sit in a chair, I can't be sure that it will hold me, since chairs do, on occasion, break. But I've sat in hundreds of chairs, and I've sat in this one dozens of times, so I have faith enough to plant my butt down barely thinking about it. I make an assumption of truth (the chair will hold me) based on enough evidence (chairs hold people, and this one has held me before) to make it reasonable to make that assumption. So also when I reach out to turn a doorknob. I turn it and walk, believing that the door will open, as doors do, and I can walk through. I can't know for sure that it will, but I have faith: a logical assumption of truth based on evidence. So also when I put my key in the car to start it, or pull a cord to start a lawnmower, or ANYTHING. it's all faith, because I can't know the future. Sometimes mowers don't start and doors don't open, but I proceed on the logical assumption of truth based on previous evidence. That's what faith is. In the Bible, people believed AFTER there was enough evidence to create a basis of a logical assumption of truth based on enough evidence. People didn't show FAITH in Jesus until he had initiated some miracles. Then they started lining up for him to heal them, because now there was something to go on. It was still faith, because it's future and hence (at least temporarily) unknowable. That's how I see it. Faith is always defendable with logic. There's no silliness about it. All of us live our lives by faith. We go to the store, assuming it's still there. We pick up our phones, believing they'll work and actually connect us to the person we're after. We're surprised if they don't give us the person we're after, because we are so used to our faith achieving its logical end.