Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

I generally only put faith in something that I see actually works. Friends, for example, earn my trust; they don't receive it for free, just because they're a "friend." Perhaps that sounds harsh (and maybe it is!), but that's just how I am.

Regarding "a reason to succeed", I certainly don't rely on faith for that. One of my personal "life rules" is to always better myself. Whether that's intellectually, physically, spiritually, whatever, I like to be working on something about myself, improving. I don't need faith for that.

Faith in...what?

Faith doesn't necessarily correspond to a religion or to God. People can have faith in many things.

It's just that faith it to trust in something that isn't there. It's isn't enough to just believe. You have to be secure about what you're believing. That unshakable trust is faith.

We're human. One way or another we need faith in something. Something to hold on to because unless we're are able to grasp the sheer enormity of our existence, the concept of living is far too big for most people to handle. So you need a boost. An unshakable center in which you can rely on.

What that is...is where our faith eventually lies.

I think a lot of people interpret religious faith (unfortunately) as something along the lines of "believing ridiculous stuff that's obviously not true."

In my own experience, I think it's much more along the lines of "trusting what your gut already knows to be true, even when you might not be able to explain or prove it."

Sometimes you just know.

Faith:
"The suppression of knowledge, sense and reason in deference to the wisdom of a thief."

Thanks to my friend the The Prattler the prattler who reinterprets Bierce for fun.

To believe in something for which their is no reason is not something I do or believe in.

We succeed because we are ambitious, passionate, and work for what we want. We may have faith in ourselves, which is reasonable as we know ourselves and our capabilities . We seldom succeed just because we believe we can. We succeed because we know there are really no limits on what we can do except those we put on ourselves, that has very little to do with faith.

Gut feelings are often as wrong as they are right.

I think James Archer is on to something. :) Props for catching on.

Gut feelings are often as wrong as they are right.

That hasn't been my experience. I'm starting to trust my gut more than my brain. I've found that people who rely solely on their brains to sort through everything in a rational way often wind up making decisions that are just as silly as anyone else.

(Not saying you're wrong, just that it probably varies based on experiences, semantics, approach, attitude, etc.)

Another way to interpret it, for more secular tastes: sometimes your subconscious understands more than your conscious brain can handle.

I've found that people who rely solely on their brains to sort through everything in a rational way often wind up making decisions that are just as silly as anyone else.

Yeah I know what you're saying there James. Personally, I think that there are people out there who hide behind "logic" and sometimes land themselves alone in a room full of quacks engaging in smart talk.

We sometimes use logic as an excuse to not take chances or sometimes to make a really slow decision before the oppertunity is lost.

Ah it's just like this person I know, who is awful with girls. I think he tries to think things out too logically, gets burned every time.

Ah it's just like this person I know, who is awful with girls. I think he tries to think things out too logically, gets burned every time.

Exactly. Romantic relationships are a perfect example of a situation in which logic fails 99% of the time. :-) You have to trust your gut, have faith in the greater order of things, and just go for it. Love is, generally speaking, not a conscious act. It often happens despite our intentions.

I think the more that we understand and accept the limitations of our conscious brains to process information, the *better* we become at making good decisions because we rely on the more subtle clues around us (whether that's subconscious perceptions or spiritual promptings), and make decisions that we wouldn't be able to consciously sort out.

I think the subject of which you put your faith in is of imperitive importance. After all.. is there more to life? Do we believe we are here for a reason more than ourselves?

This community rocks. This is a great conversation and I doubt that you'll find this kind of talk on any other forum on the web.

It's a harsh stereotype but I think that internet people in general are very cynical of religion. When life sucks, people look inward and wonder why me? The book The Poisionwood Bible actually talks about this a lot.

Faith is extremely important, its what pulls us through our darkest hours. My faith is a traditional religious view, but as others have state, faith comes in many forms.

Faith comes in many forms, including faith in one's self.