Reverend_Jello
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- Posted: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:56:54 +0000
Every step you've ever taken was a step of faith. You have to have faith that your own five senses are working or you cannot get by in the world. You can try to rely on the five senses of others, but even their senses you can only perceive through yours, for the ways that they can tell you what they sense require the use of your senses of hearing, touch, or sight.
People who say that they do not believe in God or the supernatural because they are scientifically-minded and can't accept things on faith alone are confused, they actually have a lot of faith and are accepting plenty on faith alone. They have faith in science. Some may argue that this is because science can be proven, but even science can only be proven by science, and we have to have faith that these processes of proving science are actually reliable. Science is proven through experiments and observation, and observation is done through the five senses. The truth is that in the past, science has "proven" false. It used to be scientifically proven that a human being could not travel past sixty miles per hour, now everyone does. It used to be scientifically proven that you cannot go 20,000 leagues under the sea, and we have gone deeper. Believing modern science requires more faith than we realize.
When you walk, you have faith that what you see and feel in front of you is really there and there's not actually a cliff in front of you. This seems silly until you consider that people do hallucinate and see things that are not there or do not see things that are. How do you know that you are not really just a catatonic in a hospital and this is all an illusion? Or a schizophrenic imagining this world around you?
Furthermore, you have to have faith that your own memories are true and not false memories of some kind. There have been cases of false memories being formed through the power of suggestion or through dreams that people have confused with reality.
As you put faith in these processes of your senses and memories every day, it becomes second nature and you don't see it as faith anymore. This comes from the faith constantly being present and from the fact that the faith "proves" right over and over, though technically nothing can be proven. Such is the way it should be with those who do choose to put faith in the supernatural. It should be such a strong and reflexive faith that it is not even perceived as faith anymore, but rather as second nature, just like walking.
This is why people who put their faith in science say things along the lines of, "This must be true because science says so," and those who put their faith in a religion say, "This is true because our holy book says so." Both are forms of proof, but only forms of proof from where they have put their faith.
Err, not really. When you know how something works you don't need to have faith in it. I generally understand how I can see, how I can feel, etc etc, I don't need to have faith in it to know that it will be there for me because I am healthy and have had no problems with it in the past. If something happens, it will be surprising yes, but it will not be disappointing because my 'faith' in it was lost.
Faith and how the human body works are pretty different things to be comparing.
And about your 'scientifically proven' facts from before, you're right about those, you make a strong point with those, actually, but those were from a time so very uninformed. It also used to be believed and 'scientifically proven' that the king was sent from your god. There are a mess of things that have been 'scientifically' proven because of the words of the bible.
There is a difference. You only know how you can see, feel, hear, etc. because it has been scientifically studied and researched. However, science is based on observation and observation is reliant on the five senses anyway, and can something really prove itself? If so, the Torah, Koran, Bible, and Upanishads would stand as proof of themselves by their own existance. Science is proven true by its own standards of proof, by these holy books' standards of proof they are proven true as well.
The Bible was not responsible for scientists believing that we could not go 20,000 leagues under the sea, scientists working after the church and science had been separated came up with that. Such was the case with the scientific belief that we could not survive traveling faster than 60 miles per hour, or the belief that we could not break the sound barrier. Such things were purely based on science, not on the Bible.
People who say that they do not believe in God or the supernatural because they are scientifically-minded and can't accept things on faith alone are confused, they actually have a lot of faith and are accepting plenty on faith alone. They have faith in science. Some may argue that this is because science can be proven, but even science can only be proven by science, and we have to have faith that these processes of proving science are actually reliable. Science is proven through experiments and observation, and observation is done through the five senses. The truth is that in the past, science has "proven" false. It used to be scientifically proven that a human being could not travel past sixty miles per hour, now everyone does. It used to be scientifically proven that you cannot go 20,000 leagues under the sea, and we have gone deeper. Believing modern science requires more faith than we realize.
When you walk, you have faith that what you see and feel in front of you is really there and there's not actually a cliff in front of you. This seems silly until you consider that people do hallucinate and see things that are not there or do not see things that are. How do you know that you are not really just a catatonic in a hospital and this is all an illusion? Or a schizophrenic imagining this world around you?
Furthermore, you have to have faith that your own memories are true and not false memories of some kind. There have been cases of false memories being formed through the power of suggestion or through dreams that people have confused with reality.
As you put faith in these processes of your senses and memories every day, it becomes second nature and you don't see it as faith anymore. This comes from the faith constantly being present and from the fact that the faith "proves" right over and over, though technically nothing can be proven. Such is the way it should be with those who do choose to put faith in the supernatural. It should be such a strong and reflexive faith that it is not even perceived as faith anymore, but rather as second nature, just like walking.
This is why people who put their faith in science say things along the lines of, "This must be true because science says so," and those who put their faith in a religion say, "This is true because our holy book says so." Both are forms of proof, but only forms of proof from where they have put their faith.
e-mazing
Err, not really. When you know how something works you don't need to have faith in it. I generally understand how I can see, how I can feel, etc etc, I don't need to have faith in it to know that it will be there for me because I am healthy and have had no problems with it in the past. If something happens, it will be surprising yes, but it will not be disappointing because my 'faith' in it was lost.
Faith and how the human body works are pretty different things to be comparing.
And about your 'scientifically proven' facts from before, you're right about those, you make a strong point with those, actually, but those were from a time so very uninformed. It also used to be believed and 'scientifically proven' that the king was sent from your god. There are a mess of things that have been 'scientifically' proven because of the words of the bible.
There is a difference.
The Bible was not responsible for scientists believing that we could not go 20,000 leagues under the sea, scientists working after the church and science had been separated came up with that. Such was the case with the scientific belief that we could not survive traveling faster than 60 miles per hour, or the belief that we could not break the sound barrier. Such things were purely based on science, not on the Bible.
