Of_Truth_and

Of Truth & Faith

In Hebrews 11:1-3 (It is believed that it was Paul that wrote)...
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

First off, this neo-Platonian understanding of "things" is completely wrong. Secondly, wishing for things is not "evidence" of anything external to one's wishing, but rather only perhaps evidence that you think that wishing really hard and personal conviction makes things have real objective existence. And thirdly, the claim by Christians that faith is comparable to reasonable believe is belied by what they demonstrate religious faith to be.

Faith is the absolute conviction without supporting evidence or reason that ('X' and 'Y') is not false, even if 'X' and 'Y' are contrary, self-contradictory, unintelligible or mutually exclusive to one another. In other words, faith is the conviction that ('X' and 'Y') is not false even if it must be. Faith is belief BECAUSE of belief. Faith is picking yourself up by your bootstraps and swinging yourself about the room without any visible means of support. Some believers will try to argue that faith and reasonable belief are the same thing, but reasonable belief cannot have the characteristics previously mentioned, and in fact, if one has reasonable belief about 'Q', then one has no purpose for faith.
If I eat apples often, then the belief that apples are edible is not faith. Faith is insidious and subversive. It destroys one's ability to think rationally. One of the worst things a person can do is to defend the unjustifiable with fluff, rationalizations or deceit, and this is what faith is all about. People often misunderstand faith. They think it's romantic and "mysterious". No, it's just a touch of insanity. I consider it a neurotic pathology.

If someone asked me, "well, don't you have 'faith' that your father loves you?" No, I don't. That is demonstrable, proclaimed and reasonable, not "faith". Either we have good reason to believe something or we don't. To be absolutely convinced of something for no reason is to think badly. To short-circuit our ability to reason and instead defer to imaginings as a means of thinking is to not think at all.

Speculation and intuition are just fine, as long as we understand what they are and that they, as arguments, hold no weight.

Christians often have PFS (Pathological Faith Syndrome).

PFS leads to PLS. (Pathological Faith Syndrome leads to Pathological Liar's Syndrome).

This is true because the believer becomes so invested in a belief that cannot be supported by anything more substantial than the fact that the believer believes it that they are compelled to lie to continue to shore up this obviously lacking condition.

However, "Truth" is that which is rationally consistent and non-contradictory and there is nothing rational about faith at all. At best, faith is the product of flawed thinking, and at worse, it is a pathology that prevents one from discerning and discarding untruths.

The Vampire
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