The Bible is not history, not by a looooong shot. Its a poor mans Lord of the Rings i say.

As for faith, to me this is important in my life, but has no Christian/spiritual foundation at all. When i'm going through hard times i tell myself to keep the faith (no pun intended) as things will eventually get better. I have faith and trust in my friends and family, faith and hope that people will make the right choices in their lives etc etc. I do not have blind faith in something which does not exist, only in what does.


andi

if everything was left to chance , then how would you enjoy life ... I think you are missing my point either that or I am not explaining myself very well.

What if your luck ran out and you couldnt get out of bed ? Would you have a good day ? Faith gives you love , so all your days whatever your luck are filled with love and faith so you enjoy yourself more.

Dawn

The bible contains all answers to all questions to human nature , its amazing....

Im glad you can put so much faith into those around you. Having faith in others alone to me is blind faith as people are people , they cannot give you faith, peace, and unconditional love.

Dawn

That's an urban legend and an anachronism actually :p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero#Great_Fire_of_Rome


And no, I haven't read the Bible.

I think the problem here is a lack of definition of what faith is. There are two types of faith.

There is faith as it pertains to belief, religious in particular. In this sense faith is believing in something despite the fact that there is no evidence nor any good reason to believe in that thing. If there were evidence or at least a good, valid reason that has logic and rationality behind it, it would be enough just to believe it. You wouldn't need faith. Faith becomes necessary when reason fails. It's pretending to know things you clearly don't know. To me this sort of faith is not only intellectually vacuous but it's dangerous for reasons I've covered earlier in the thread. Basically this quote sums it up nicely. "I don't know if faith can move mountains, but I've seen it bring down skyscrapers."

The other type of faith is what andi was talking about. Having belief in yourself, your ability to overcome adversities and troubles. Belief in those around you to come through for you. This type of faith is a very different kind to the first type, as this meaning in a lot of ways is evidence based. Maybe you have belief in yourself and your abilities to overcome hard times because you've been through those times before and you have a reason to believe you can through any hard time the future may hold. Or maybe you know others who have lived through hard times and you know of the human capacity to overcome challenges.
Faith in others comes from experience that a particular person can come through for you. I doubt anybody would trust a complete stranger with the welfare of their new born baby purely on faith. People develop trust over time and this builds this kind of faith.
I guess this kind of faith is analogous to hope or positivity. Sometimes hope can let you down badly but when you're going through difficult times, hope (or this kind of faith) can be the only thing to keep you alive. Having trust and belief (call it faith if you want) in yourself and others is wonderful and inspiring and uplifting.

But this type of faith is very different because you're not claiming to know things about the world when you really don't know. You're claiming to know things about yourself and the human potential (which I believe is limitless) and you really are the only one who knows what you are truly capable of achieving.

So like andi, I definitely have that sort of faith, though I wouldn't call it that as it has a different meaning from the most widely understood meaning of the word, and I think Dawn (and I say this with no disrespect) that you are mixing the two meanings up and that is where the confusion is coming from.

I don't believe in luck, and though I know they don't mean it I feel more upset when people say 'Good luck' when I have things like exams, because it implies that I am crap and will only pass by some miracle they call luck. I do things for myself, I don't wait around for them to happen. Perhaps I am misunderstanding you, but to me I have no 'faith' in anything. I have a vivid imagination so I might daydream about things, but I know that they are either unrealistic, or I will have to work hard to get them. I don't need to 'have faith in myself' because that again just sounds like I don't think I can do it and have to tell myself 'You can do it' when all I really have to do is try hard, if I fail, I try again. No faith.

Your face is an urban legend and an anachronism!

.. Sorry, that's been my standard answer lately :D

I cannot believe people actually are naive enough to think the bible is full of facts and true based stories....

I'm curious who wrote it back then, he could be awesome famous now (shakepear & JK Rowling would have been nothing)

:lol: That's not quite a compliment.

The various books were written by numerous different and unconnected individuals and groups centuries before the birth of Christ (The Old Testament) and decades and centuries after the time of Christ (the New Testamnet) who had no connection and no first hand knowledge of the man. Which explains the countless contradictions.

It was then edited and altered by certain groups to create one single book to present a certain perception that these groups wanted everybody to follow.