Questions about faith

I think this is a very fundamental question to religion.

What is faith? Why is it important?

Hebrews 11: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.

What does that mean? Is faith believing in something without the need for evidence? Is faith a source of knowledge? Is faith a way of thinking?

Can someone have faith in something that isn't true? If yes, how can someone free himself from that lie?

If you spend time studying Greek, "faith" is used to mean a reasonable belief, bassed on solid evidence. The whole "faith means belief without any evidence whatsoever" is just nonsense that denialists like to spew. As for your quote of Hebrews 11, if you read it in context, it is clearly referring to having faith about future things, which haven't happened yet.

As for what faith really is, faith is more than just a belief, it's an action.

If faith is based on evidence then it is the same as knowledge.

"assurance of things hoped for"
Is faith also the desire to believe?

Not quite. Notice I said it was a reasonable belief.

Well, you're still quoting the passage from Hebrews, which is about the future. Although, I do find your question intriguing. It's like something you believe just because you want it to be true and it sounds nice. However, I don't think this describes the Bible or those with the Christian faith.

as it is written:
"None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
"Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips.'
"Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:10-18

What this is saying is that no human being on their own is seeking for salvation through God, and their works or deeds do not earn them salvation. It is only through Jesus Christ we are saved. Man's natural mind is to think they have to do something to earn salvation. However proverbs 14:12 says "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death."

This can be a tough pill for many people to swallow. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) In this case, I think the desire would be to believe that everyone will be saved if they're "a good person," because that's the comfortable belief, or to think that any sort of religion is a path to salvation. However, Jesus said differently in John 14:6.

There's other things in the Bible that aren't appealing to believers either, like when Jesus said we will be hated by the world because the world hated Jesus. The Bible also says we'll go through trials and suffering. These certainly aren't desirable things.

Therefore, I don't think you could say a Christian's faith is a desire of their personal wants of it to be true. Perhaps some other relgions are like that, filled with nothing but nice sounding things that appeal to man's comfort, but that doesn't describe the Bible as a whole. There are certainly many great and nice sounding things in there, and there's things that discuss repentence and humbling yourself, which many people have a hard time doing, due to pride.

Then why be religious if you think christian faith is not based on personal hope? Honestly, i don't see a reasonable belief of a god existing, bu thats just me.

Your doing a funny thing he in naming stuff in the bible that isn't so desirable snd saying "we're not being wishful becaude there are bad things too" and all i have tonsay is bogus. Compared to what you recieve then what you don't, i'd say it's mostly wishful.

I mean being with god eternally and being in heaven thats perfect is evil free. You really gonna tell me this isn't desirable.

I'm happy to respect your beliefs, but i don't respect when you try to wiggle your way out of the fallacies you are stuck in between.

2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Psalm 33:4
For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
Psalm 85:10
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 85:11
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
Psalm 89:33
but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.
Psalm 91:4
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
Psalm 115:1
[ Psalm 115 ] Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
Psalm 117:2
For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.
Isaiah 55:3
Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
Hosea 2:20
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.



Romans 10:17
17*Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

To me that means knowledge, because we can't be absolutely certain about what we know.

If it is based on evidence, then what is it?

The bible says it is true, but i don't see evidence outside it. Just that it proclaims to be the true word of god, and because of that, you should accept it as an absolute truth


You need faith in the first place to believe the bible is true. To me it is like an excuse to step into a circular reasoning



And that's why it is the most important value.

Faith is convincing yourself that something is true and create an uncuestionable dogma

Ive always seen faith as the evidence of things unseen, and the doornob to turn, when asking Jesus in.

God bless
pickles

If someone says they have faith just because the bible says we are spose to or because they are raised to than this person more than likely hasnt actually found God yet.. because once one truly finds God an feels his presence than its really not faith anymore you know he excist... after said experince are faith isnt about weather or not God excist or not but faith in what God is gonna do.... like if your in a situation an you need Gods help then you just have to have faith tbat he will take care of it.

Except I don't know anyone that beleives like that. You want evidence for things that verify the Bible, look up "The Case for Christ" and "More than a Capenter." There's more than enough evidence to believe the Bible, but evidence has NEVER been the issue for someone believing, as you're also see in both of those cases I mentioned. They're both made by ex-atheists.

Faith is yes Belief in sonmething and or someone. Faith no matter what has to have an Object
Faith is void with no object.
Such as I can have Faith (belief) in swallowing and live. swallowing is my object here. So we swallow food and live yes?
But wait a minute I could swallow poison and die yes?
Therefore Faith has to have an object that is true, perfect and correct right? Because I just showed you that we can have Faith in, yet the most important is what is ones Faith in?
Now I can have Faith in my Wife, my friend, my Pastor, my Church I go to, and many other things even in myself, in this world right?
Have you found anyone here on this earth or anything on this earth that you can trust (have Faith in) 100% of the time, this includes yourself. Can we be decieve and even decieve ourselves by ourselves and or others?
So what or who do you choose today to have Faith in? Do you breath air and live? Do you see the air you breath? Nor do we see God in the flesh as once was, but now no more for we today by God in the Spirit of God are born again by God through the resurrected Christ, today in reception of the Holy Ghost by the Spirit not the flesh.
Hope this amswers what you are seeking to know, because when the rubber hits the road, God just love you!!!!!!!!!!!! waiitng for you to respond

Faith is not the same as knowledge, because you might not have a lot of knowledge about something but not have faith. I don't consider Christianity as faith in an object, but in a person who was both fully God and fully man, who died on a cross for humanity, for their sins (passive indifference and rebellion against God), to take away the wrath of God that was upon them, and so that they can have eternal life by trusting Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The faith that Christians talk about is not blind, but based on evidence both in the Bible, outside through archaeology (walls of Jericho, the cylinder of Nabonidus, etc), extrabiblical sources (Josephus, Herodotus, Tacitus, and probably others). Ultimately how ever deep you want to go to come to the faith after analyzing a lot of the evidence or just hearing the good news or gospel of Jesus Christ, you have to decide if you want to accept Jesus into your life or not, despite having the evidence presented. As one person mentioned, The Case for Christ and the one by Josh Mcdowell are good (I have never read Josh Mcdowell's one More Than A Carpenter). Christianity is not about the information one can good, even though the info can be good. It is about accepting Jesus into one's heart and allowing him to lead one's life and not oneself. The core of Christianity is Jesus not just doctrine, though the Bible talks about having right doctrine (though no one should be so obsessed with it that they forget Jesus). God bless. I hope you are looking for the answers and trying to understand Christianity.

Faith, for me was being given a gift of knowing God existed by witnessing his power one night long ago. When sharing with family about what I witnessed, none believed me. But as I walked down the path of life and was handed lemons over and over, I had faith that what I saw was of God and it was intended for me. It made me realize I wanted to know this God and he gave me the faith to know we are not alone.

He is everywhere and I also know with my whole heart, those who have not been given a gift such as this, but who believe in His Word on faith alone and from others who share their experiences, will be truly blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Hey Naza, welcome to the forums. You've raised some excellent points; thank you for that!

What do you​ think faith is? And how do you define knowledge (in your own words)?

This is why your wrong.

Its true that nothing is really 100% absolute, but i don't need faith in the things you say.

I mean for my wife, i don't 100% know that she isn't cheating on me, but i have good reason to believe she wont: we have a good sex life, we connect emotionally well, we always have fun together and her family likes me. From this, i can determine that i have no reason to believe she is cheating on me.

Now if she was acting strange, coming home late all the time, smells different, etc, i now put into an investigation if there are reasons for this behaviour. If it turns out i find that she is cheating, then sad me. If not then it was just a misunderstanding. Either way, before this strange behaviour, i have 0 grounds to think she is cheating and even if i blindly accuse her and im right, i was still not justified in accusin her.

What im saying is that i don't need faith to know something to be true, i have good reasonable grounds to say i have no reason to think otherwise. Your god has no reasonable grounds on so you have faith (which is gullability) that it is true because you so badly want it to be true.

Thats what faith is, gullability. "Knowing" there's a god is as simple as your brain tricking you

You have been posting some interesting answers!



So you are saying that once you have evidence about his existence, then you know that and you don't need faith anymore...
But to think you are feeling him you need to be convinced that he exists. To me it is like you want to feel god, such an amazing experience, and then you influence yourself to feel it. Mind can do that.

Feeling god isn't an evidence to believe it, because you need to have faith that god exists in the first place. Some people say they feel Allah, that doesn't mean that allah exists.


Most of the people i know that believe doesn't mind about backing up their beliefs with evidence, or trying to prove them. They just believe them because they are written on the bible.

John 20:29
Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Maybe Jesus existed, it is very possible. The bible also has provable historical facts. BUT it also claims some unprovable and even impossible facts.

That some parts of the bible seem to be true, it doesn't mean that everything in it is true. Neither that it is the word of god!


I think it's worth to make a distinction here.
To have faith in someone, or to have faith in humanity or things like that, means hope in that those things are going to go well.

I can have faith, or confidence on the things I believe because I have reasons to believe them, one cannot be 100% sure. Maybe you get on a bus having faith in that the bus driver is competent, but it turns out that he isn't. There's reasons to have confidence in that everything is going to be ok, every other time you got in a bus nothing bad happended. Because it is an inductive reasoning "every bus is safe because I have been safe in every bus" it may be false. Anyways, if there's somehing that defies my beliefs I could change them.

I choose to believe the thing i have evidence to believe in, like the air I breathe, like my body is made of innumerable and minuscule units called cells, that the universe I live in is far more enormous and old that what I can imagine. None of these things I can see directly, but there is plenty of evidence that supports them. Te belief is not important, what is important is the fundaments of the belief.

I don't really see evidence for that

I think that the easiest person to deceive is oneself. And it is even easier when we deliberatelly chose to believe in things with little evidence. And when we prohibit the doubt and citical thinking.


What happens if the bible isn't the word of god, but the writtings of men who needed answers and a frame to guide their lifes.
Then you will be renouncing to your freedom, to your reason, to your curiosity (looking for the truth). Because you think you don't need those. you think you already have the answers, the truth, the purposse of your life.
The most important think is to believe, but that may make you a slave of the lie. Chaining your mind


Faith as I see it is a mentallity with the purposse of believe in a certain thing. It doesnt' need evidence that support the belief, what is important is the belief itself and whatever happens, you can't stop believing in that dogma. Then you become a slave who resign to critical thinking.
It is the arrogant thinking that you can have truth just by believing or by revelation
You can have faith in something that is a lie, but you couldn't free yourself from it. No matter how much evidence or reasons ar presented againts the belief. Because you are now dependant of the belief.
In order to sustain the belief it doesn't matter to deny scientific facts, or even to make you feel comfortable in ignorance

In opposition with faith, knowledge are the sets of beliefs we build througout our lifes, those beliefs emanate from reallity, and because of that they are not absolute truths. Changing our beliefs accordingly to the evidence of reallity is called learning.
Faith isn't a virtue, but a vice. It leads to a close mind

Aah, well put! So, would you say that you believe in your knowledge? And if so, would that not be considered adhering to a dogma? There is a stigma with that word, but I think we should all be honest with ourselves - regardless of worldviews - that everyone is dogmatic in some way, shape, or form.

Can that be construed as a closed-minded statement? Speaking of vices, I believe it was John Dryden that was quoted as saying: "Virtue in distress and vice in triumph have made the atheists of mankind."

Hello Naza.I got my information from Andrew Wommack.spirit,soul and body.
you asked....what is faith?
there is a human natural faith based on sense knowledge(the five senses)(things you can see,taste,hear,smell and feel)

supernatural faith are not based on sense knowledge,but on what is not seen.

example of sense knowledge(5 senses)if a chair is placed there next to you and someone told you to sit in the chair....you would look at the chair to see if it looks strong enough to hold your weight and you would feel it..If you could see it and feel it then you would believe its there.

example of supernatural faith.If someone said sit in the chair and you looked and did not see the chair or feel anything there,you would not sit there,but if you believed there was a chair there,then you would sit.

GOD calls those things that are not as if they were.

Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

No, look this is he definition of dogmatic

• (of a statement, opinion, etc) forcibly asserted as if authoritative and unchallengeable
• (of a person) prone to making such statements
• of, relating to, or constituting dogma: dogmatic writings
• based on assumption rather than empirical observation

Knowledge isn't unquestionable, dogma is. If I find evidence that indicates I'm wrong, I wouldn't negate that just because it defies my beliefs. I would analyse it and change my beliefs to take account of the facts



Natural faith, as you call it, is knowledge. We belive some things because we have evidence that supports them

So, in other words, is based in nothing... There's no way you could know if that is true.

Are you serious? if you believe there's an invisible chair, then you could sit on it?!
There's no reason to believe something is true if there's no evidence at all that supports it

When you are sure about something that has no evidence that indicates it is true, then you are being irrational. And if that thing is false, then you would be chaining yourself to a lie