Prince

I've no faith. I don't think I am any better or worse off because of that.

Having faith, blind faith, is to me about accepting something as true, as fact, without basis. If I could accept God as fact, if I could accept that a god exists to begin with, then maybe I might grow faith out of that.

The big problem with me and faith, religion, belief, whatever you want to call it, is that it seems ruined by the culture of religion. No specific religion, but the existence of religion. Each religion wants to describe and perceive divinity in their own, slightly unique way. Most of them have special, sacred books (written by man, of course) to back their claims up, and provide them with guidance and solace. Well, good for them.

I find myself having more faith in science, because it does not claim to be something that it isn't -- for the most part. Scientific articles do not claim to be God's word, in fact whenever new discoveries are made, old information and research is re-examined and at times discredited. This does not seem to happen to the Bible, for example. The Bible is not allowed to be touched, it cannot be discredited or seriously examined, because it is the word of God, and thus The Truth.

Well, that's all very exciting. But if something cannot be questioned, examined, even considered false if need be, merely because it is thought to be "the word of God", then as far as I can tell it has no credibility to begin with. I guess this is where blind faith would come in. But for me, it doesn't.

Yes, you can claim that of course the Bible can and should be examined, even questioned, and there are people out there who do this all the time. However... Herein lies the problem. Not only is Christianity such an old dog that it cannot be taught new tricks, but it is hard to examine and question material which has no reference, no practical credible background or research behind it to back it up. How can one begin to question and discredit such information that is provided with the assumption that, because it is the word of God, it does not need to be proven? That it requires no actual proof to back up the fairy tales? Because of the nature of the Bible, you can only question its content via philosophical means, not really with scientific measures.

Interestingly enough, both science and philosophy offer means to doubt, question, study and discredit, and thus grow. Nothing is considered absolute, anything can be discredited, any information can be updated when new discoveries are made. This is not true for religion.... Religion leaves no room for growth, unless it is within well-defined boundaries.

Perhaps religion has ruined faith for me. Perhaps science stepped in, when God failed to deliver. Either way, faith in God offers some people with easy answers for questions that they have been wondering about. When in doubt, turn to the Bible. God also offers them comfort, understanding and, in some ways, knowledge and even growth.

Science and philosophy provide me with all these things, and more. Blind faith fell short of doing so.

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Who is John Galt?