A major concern in most religions is faith. I just saw a FB post saying "faith kills doubt and vice-versa." OK, but what the hell is faith? It tends to be defined in circular terms and/or with so much vagueness that there is no way to formalize or even really understand the concept (e.g. that "evidence of things not seen..." scripture).

Different religions have different definitions of faith. The LDS church (a.k.a. Mormons), established in New York in the 19th century, tends a bit more toward concrete definitions of terms than some other Christian flavors. I learned that faith was more or less (in my words) a response to an information signal about the reality of God, the truth of the church, Jesus' love, etc. received via channels placed in our minds for this purpose. I always found the LDS church's pragmatism and groundedness (in many things) both comforting and boring. But in this case it provided an operational definition.

And now I'm not religious.

(My father, the origin of my rational approach to spirituality, did not appreciate this explanation of my faith transition)

#religion #faith #lds #mormon #exmormon #operationaldefinition #DefineYourTerms

A major concern in most religions is faith. I just saw a FB post saying "faith kills doubt and vice-versa." OK, but what the hell is faith? It tends to be defined in circular terms and/or with so much vagueness that there is no way to formalize or even really understand the concept (e.g. that "evidence of things not seen..." scripture).

Different religions have different definitions of faith. The LDS church (a.k.a. Mormons), established in New York in the 19th century, tends a bit more toward concrete definitions of terms than some other Christian flavors. I learned that faith was more or less (in my words) a response to an information signal about the reality of God, the truth of the church, Jesus' love, etc. received via channels placed in our minds for this purpose. I always found the LDS church's pragmatism and groundedness (in many things) both comforting and boring. But in this case it provided an operational definition.

And now I'm not religious.

(My father, the origin of my rational approach to spirituality, did not appreciate this explanation of my faith transition)

#religion #faith #lds #mormon #exmormon #operationaldefinition #DefineYourTerms

A major concern in most religions is faith. I just saw a FB post saying "faith kills doubt and vice-versa." OK, but what the hell is faith? It tends to be defined in circular terms and/or with so much vagueness that there is no way to formalize or even really understand the concept (e.g. that "evidence of things not seen..." scripture).

Different religions have different definitions of faith. The LDS church (a.k.a. Mormons), established in New York in the 19th century, tends a bit more toward concrete definitions of terms than some other Christian flavors. I learned that faith was more or less (in my words) a response to an information signal about the reality of God, the truth of the church, Jesus' love, etc. received via channels placed in our minds for this purpose. I always found the LDS church's pragmatism and groundedness (in many things) both comforting and boring. But in this case it provided an operational definition.

And now I'm not religious.

(My father, the origin of my rational approach to spirituality, did not appreciate this explanation of my faith transition)

#religion #faith #lds #mormon #exmormon #operationaldefinition #DefineYourTerms

@guyjantic for me, it was "Stranger in a Strange Land", where they were discussing what became of Lot and his family. I was, no that isn't what happened, grabbed my bible, yep, that's exactly what happened.

That's when I realized all the bible study was super selective and only showing what the elders wanted. And this is from a bible custom written for that faith.

@guyjantic I can offer a Buddhist perspective. Faith precedes experience, because experience is not immediately available—or rather it is not perceived—at first. But for someone to set out on the path to liberation they need some kind of support (besides suffering). That support is the faith that this path leads in the right direction as those who have walked this path before us say. They cannot pass on their experience to us in any way; they can only say “Try it.” To believe that, I need faith.

@plsik It sounds (?) kind of like Buddhist faith is maybe "probable cause" for improved living, enlightenment, etc. Maybe a person sees some evidence, or hears some convincing reasoning that this path leads to good things, so faith is their act of choosing to provisionally trust that reasoning or evidence as they go down the path.

I don't know if I've got that at all right...

@guyjantic Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. But I also see parallels with the Christian faith. No one has ever seen God; it is only through the believer’s attempts to understand, feel, and internalize “God’s commandments” or to practice Christ’s love that anything changes. But until then, there is only faith.