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I'm often astounded that people put so much stock in faith. Why is that? What is the value of having faith other than for its own sake? It sure seems to me that faith is an end value rather than a means to an end.

What’s really wacky as well is that people will choose faith over reason! It’s one thing to have faith to believe in things for which there are no compelling evidences, but it’s something else when you have it where it’s not needed. There can be a ton of evidence for a thing, and yet, in the face of all that evidence, a person will take an opposing point of view in order to uphold the concept of faith! It makes no sense whatsoever.

Can anyone provide a compelling reason for having faith on its practical merits?

Some Schmo wrote:I'm often astounded that people put so much stock in faith. Why is that? What is the value of having faith other than for its own sake? It sure seems to me that faith is an end value rather than a means to an end.

What’s really wacky as well is that people will choose faith over reason! It’s one thing to have faith to believe in things for which there are no compelling evidences, but it’s something else when you have it where it’s not needed. There can be a ton of evidence for a thing, and yet, in the face of all that evidence, a person will take an opposing point of view in order to uphold the concept of faith! It makes no sense whatsoever.

Can anyone provide a compelling reason for having faith on its practical merits?

Faith in general or faith in Christ?

The Nehor wrote: Faith in general or faith in Christ?

Faith in anything.

Some Schmo wrote:

The Nehor wrote: Faith in general or faith in Christ?

Faith in anything.

Faith in general is the belief in something that you can't verify in advance but is true.
Faith kept me in school. I wasn't sure that I'd make more money doing it. I had some general evidence and people told me I would....but not everyone does and I never have.
Faith is the moving power of humanity. It's what makes us get out of bed in the morning thinking that anything you do will matter today.

As you get more experience faith slowly turns into knowledge. I brush my teeth every morning. I find that I'm having fewer dental problems now and my teeth start getting whiter. It turns from faith in my dentist/parents into an understanding of the cause and effect of brushing.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the use of the Atonement in your life. As you use it more faith turns more and more into knowledge until the perfect day when you will see him and know that he is.

I have faith in quite a few things.

That have nothing to do with God.

It helps me to have a sense of what is going to occur so that I don't stress out about it. I have faith in the everyday mundane and it's just a matter of believing something will happen even though I have no certainty it will. I can't imagine living where I was always in a constant state of panic worrying about whether something would or would not happen.

Good point, Some Schmo, and one that I make often in face-to-face discussions about Mormonism.

My life experience to date is that A) the truly honest people will be asking you, nay, begging you, to verify everything they say and examine their claims from every possible angle so that you can be as confident as humanly possible of the truth of what they're saying, whereas B) the truly dishonest people will be vehemently encouraging you to just accept their claims on trust and/or faith.

The Nehor wrote: Faith in general is the belief in something that you can't verify in advance but is true.

It is? I've never understood it to be that. And how would you know it's true if it's unverifiable?

According the Merriam-Webster, faith is “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.” There were other variations on the definition, but it’s this meaning that I’m addressing as the topic of this thread.

In case you’re interested, this was the entire entry:

1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1): fidelity to one's promises (2): sincerity of intentions
2 a (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2): complete trust
3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

The Nehor wrote:Faith kept me in school. I wasn't sure that I'd make more money doing it. I had some general evidence and people told me I would....but not everyone does and I never have.

I wouldn't call that faith. It sounds more like trust to me (in the way that trust is different from faith). You trusted the people that told you that you'd make more money and the general evidence. No faith was required.

The Nehor wrote: Faith is the moving power of humanity. It's what makes us get out of bed in the morning thinking that anything you do will matter today.

Wow, what a grandious statement! But I must inform you that I have never been moved by what people call faith to get out of bed in the morning. My desire to make money to feed my family is what does it for me. And trust me; feeding my family matters to me.

The Nehor wrote: As you get more experience faith slowly turns into knowledge. I brush my teeth every morning. I find that I'm having fewer dental problems now and my teeth start getting whiter. It turns from faith in my dentist/parents into an understanding of the cause and effect of brushing.

Again, what you're calling faith here I call trust. You trust your dentist and your parents that what they tell you is true, and as you practice their advice, you get a personal knowledge that it was right. Once again, no faith needed.

The Nehor wrote: Faith in Jesus Christ is the use of the Atonement in your life. As you use it more faith turns more and more into knowledge until the perfect day when you will see him and know that he is.

This assumes you think there's some utility in the myth of the atonement, but there's no way you'll ever be able to prove that the myth is real. All you'll ever be able to do is keep telling yourself that it has value until one day, you've completely convinced yourself, without any proof at all, that it has some value.

barrelomonkeys wrote:I have faith in quite a few things.

That have nothing to do with God.

It helps me to have a sense of what is going to occur so that I don't stress out about it. I have faith in the everyday mundane and it's just a matter of believing something will happen even though I have no certainty it will. I can't imagine living where I was always in a constant state of panic worrying about whether something would or would not happen.

I have to stress that I'm not talking about faith in the way that it is synonymous with trust, but in the way the two are different, which is to say: faith can never be verified nor validated. Trust can.

Dr. Shades wrote:My life experience to date is that A) the truly honest people will be asking you, nay, begging you, to verify everything they say and examine their claims from every possible angle so that you can be as confident as humanly possible of the truth of what they're saying, whereas B) the truly dishonest people will be vehemently encouraging you to just accept their claims on trust and/or faith.

That's so true.

I've often thought that if a person tells you (or feels the need to tell you) to "just trust me", you damn well shouldn't.

EDIT: LOL... and to think I just said those words in a previous post in this thread! Of course, I openly invite people to criticize whatever I say. I really don't think people should take what I say at face value, but should think it through for themselves. ;)

Unless I already do based on other factors, "Trust me" is guaranteed to make me view the person with distrust.