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Further more, morality and freedom are titles of things that we all actually experience.
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And I can’t base this trust in the abstract, and just conjure faith from nothing. But, I can trust what I have seen. I can trust in seeing people cross boundaries of faith, to challenge and support each other in seeking justice and peace at the Interfaith retreat a few weeks ago. I can trust in all of the witnesses that have touched my life, and shown me resilient and steadfast love. I can trust in the expectation that has sustained so many communities during their struggle for rights and freedom, with out assuming the violence and oppression that wounded them. I can trust in mercy that allows me to move on from these crisis of faith, and assures me that I am still in God’s image, no matter how clouded my thoughts, or thin my conviction. I can trust that anger and schism in the church is not the solution to be sought, but a pain we endure. I can trust God’s yes to creation, because I can hear that whisper, even amongst the clamor and noise of human shortfall. These things can be real to me, grounding for my faith.
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Exactly. Objective experience, interpreted by both reason and emotion, produces belief in the reality of a concept.
As for dragons... Your logic does not distinguish between bad faith and good. I would assume you beleive in freedom, or love or something. Well, does it really exist? On what level? Not physically, that's for sure. But all you have are little examples, gimplses, moments, instances. You can never see it, taste it, touch it, hear it, smell it. Okay.
I don't know in what way God exists. I'm pretty sure God isn't like much anything we know. I doubt there is anything for us to see, taste, touch, hear or smell. Save for little instances, examples, moments, glimpses.
I'm not making the case for a God that exists as a bearded man in the sky. I'm much more interested in the idea that not only is there something good out there...
As for tecoyah's comment...i have met an artist or two who was fairly evangelistic...but more importantly your analysis is faulty by omission. People force all kinds of ideas, politics, abstracts, and thoughts on other people. And i honestly don't want anyone to believe like i do for any other reason than that they feel led to do so. That some people get pushy about religion has nothing to do with the question of if faith is a valid construct.
Yes, construct. I know my idea of God is incomplete, faulty, and human. But i do think that it is describing something true about this universe...a model that bears an image of something very real.
point of this all is not to have you agree with me. but i'm sick of hearing that faith is bad for you-it is confidence that their experience can tell them something about an idea that is bigger than reality.
maybe its faith in God. or reason. or love. or art. or poltics. but everybody has got a faith...a way of understanding and percieving with something more than their mind alone. so why hate on people for something we all do?