Faith is an integral part of life. Yes, I said life. Contrary to popular opinion, faith is not strictly relegated to the realms of religion and Star Wars. No matter what you believe, you will find that those beliefs are being upheld at their foundations by faith. Before meeting Bryan and actually digging deep into my own beliefs, I thought I didn't have adequate faith. I would consider myself more of an existentialist than one of great faith, but the Bible tells us that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed. (Matt 17:20) Through our studies, both Bryan and I are finding that faith isn't as mystical as some would have you believe. Let's break faith down into three separate groups:
Reasonable Faith - Faith based on evidence. People use this everyday. You see a chair, you go to sit down in it and after placing all of your weight on that chair, you are then supported by the chair and it prevents you from falling to the ground. Now the chair could be broken, but still look like an ordinary chair, when you go to sit in it you fall on the floor and this guy laughs at you. You exercise faith every time you sit down, even when you haven't put the chair through a series of tests to prove its reliability under pressure.
Blind Faith - Faith with no supportive evidence. This type of faith isn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't invalidate it as an effective mode of faith. Most of the time this faith should still be based on something for the individual, like a promise from God or something like that. Again, this area isn't my expertise so if any of you have input I'd love to hear it.
Unreasonable Faith - Faith in spite of evidence. This type of faith is un-biblical and oft-times dangerous. If you went to the Empire State building and a man told you that if you jump off at 5pm exactly that you would be able to fly instead of fall. This would require a tremendous amount of faith to do because you know that when you jump off a building you would fall. A way to switch this to reasonable faith would be to tell the man "After You!" Then when he plummets to the ground, you can be quite certain that no matter how much faith you would have tried to muster, you would be just as dead as that guy had you exercised it.
As a Christian, I am persuaded that what I believe in is the most reasonable thing a person could believe in. I believe that the Bible is a credible source of historic information and that the presentation of Christ is an accurate description of what really happened. I believe the Bible is inspired and contains prophecy and fulfilled prophecy. I believe that life cannot come from non-life without divine intervention. I believe that the universe, as well as time has a distinct beginning.
In believing Christianity to be true, I, by default believe all other religions to be false, Mormonism included. I base all of my beliefs on reasonable evidence and would love to go deeper with anyone who would raise an inquiry on any positions I've stated.
So, while faith is used all the time, make sure you're using it in the correct way. Believing in something just for the sake of believing in it doesn't make it true, people can be sincere in their faith, but they can also be sincerely wrong! Just try to make sure you're exercising faith in a healthy way. In a way that would protect you from groups like Scientology or some Jim Jones wannabe.
Hope you've enjoyed this post!
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