Faith
 

ok, not sure if this should go in entertainment or somewhere else, given I was inspired by a tv show, so feel free to move if need be.


So I finished watching the show Grey's Anatomy just now, and I *REALLY* liked it a whole bunch tonight. The main theme behind the whole episode tonight was faith. If you're not really into all these medical shows, I think you would've liked the one tonight.

This is gonna sound REALLY damn cheesy, and I know it's JUST a tv show, but the whole episode tonight made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and I actually got a little teary eyed about the whole topic of faith. Faith huh? Sometimes I have a whole bunch of it, sometimes I don't. At the moment, I have a whole lot.

Sometimes you have to just stop THINKING about every single little step in your life's direction and just go with how you feel. I dunno, could that fall under following your heart and not your head? You never know what you'll miss out on if you ignore what you have faith in, whether it's your job, your life, your friends, family, whatever. If you keep trying to live methodically, you could bypass such wonderful things that you could be a part of, and then you'd kick yourself thinking, "What if?"

Well, I say screw living methodically. You can have a plan. You can have expectations in your life. But hell, stop QUESTIONING every single damn thing. You don't want to be one of those "what if" people, do you?

I know I don't. I have too many happy things going on in my life right now. Some are happening right this instant, and some I'm waiting on, which I have no problem doing. Like I've heard many a times, good things come to those who wait . . .

. . . and have faith.

I don't think that's cheesy at all.

You can choose to view things cynically or choose to get something out of them.

It sounds like you've done the later.

I unashamedly like "Touched by an Angel" for the same reasons.

When you act on faith instead of on reasoned analysis your chances of making a mistake or a poor decision increase. If the results of your actions aren't important to you, then feel free to act without thought. If, however, you actually care about how your life turns out or about the affect your actions have on others, think things through. Acting on faith just shows how little regard you have for your actions.

This presupposes that faith and reasoned analysis are mutually exclusive.

They are not.

I'd prefer to use the concept of instinct, or sub-consciousness. There are many times when you simply 'know' that something is the case - after all most of the operation of your brain is unconscious, why not put your trust in that.

It takes time and patience to learn to listen to what your brain is telling you - and it's very easy to misinterpret what it might be saying - In the same way, people say how it takes time to learn to listen to their preferred deity, and to understand whatever it is they are telling them to do.

In this respect, I think it's in everyone's benefit for people to learn to recognise the sound of their own, internal voices, and in time to come to trust them.

In my own personal case, I disagree with you.

My Borther did what Sue is suggesting and I ended up 30 years in a fundamentalist religion... He should have QUESTIONED it before he jumped in...

Now he attends a councelling session twice a week trying to get back to being a rational thinker... WE MUST THINK BEFORE WE LEAP... the human mind is really able to beleive anything if not first taught to be rational.

Sad but true... my brother suffers because of it

Sometimes it is best to go against your instincts and do the opposite. For instance when everyone is buying, you feel like buying, but it is usually better to be selling. Of course if you can train your internal voice to sometimes go against the grain, that might work.

Above rational thinking and faith is the concept of finding clarity. If you can discover an objective, the decisions you make will align themselves to reaching those goals.

I think that real faith can only come after much thought and deliberation. Faith is a personal choice, not one that can be forced upon you. Faith and reasoning are never mutually exclusive.

Faith can be good and bad just like everything else, it depends on how you apply it. If you "apply" it to saying/feeling "Everything will turn out well no matter what I do" you may learn a hard lesson. But if you use it to have strength and determination in knowing that in the big picture things will turn out well (in a spiritual sense, but not always financially for instance) but you still have to work at it, then that'd be a good way.

I know that wasn't very clear, faith can be hard to explain. Real faith is really more of an outlook on life rather than an excuse for doing things.

We are not omnicient. We use faith to make every single decision of our lives. So thinking things though and faith are not necisarily opposites.

The "what if" idea doesnt really hold because it works both ways - what if I actually thought things though, might things be differnt?

The key is obviously finding a blance; focusing on important ideas and those things under one's control. Worrying about dying the everyday doesnt help one at all. Being absolutely careless of one's health by hoping for the best may lead to an early death.

We coexist in two worlds, the objective or "real" one, and the unseen "invisible" one that our heart speaks to, and which is felt to exist, even though there is no proof of it. Faith is essential to putting ourselves in touch with the spiritual unseen realm. To an extent, whether it really exists or not is irrelevant. Our need for meaning, and reconciling mortality with the instinct for survival impel the leap of faith. That said, a balance must be struck between the objective and subjective...we need to always keep in mind that having to believe something to be true because our faith takes us there doesn't make it so.

Are you talking about people worrying about making mistakes and stuff. Like if someone just focuses on not spilling a cup of tea, they won't notice how warm it is, or how good it smells. Maby it is better not to worry so much about making mistakes so you can enjoy life. I guess if you have faith you will think that no matter what happens it is all right, so no matter how many mistakes you make, you are A OK. But this might leave you making more mistakes then you have to. It is better to think that everyone makes mistakes. So you yourself do chose your path in life, but you do not beat yourself up when bad shit happens.

I think faith comes through many actions as well as in-action. A faith in your beliefs will either make one stand up for something, take action or allow you to take more of a back seat because you believe something will work out without intervention.

The same could be said when interacting with others.. sometimes to have faith in someone's abilities or strength can be the greatest gift and later, reward.

My understanding is that faith is a trust.. whether to trust that there is something higher working or a trust in someone else.

I think I understand what you're saying. My own thinking about faith is that the word has different shades of meaning for different people, like many other words. I don't think it means believing in something without evidence or thought, but it is the feeling that there is a chance for a very positive outcome, and after much thought, it is worthwhile to pursue .

Positive faith is feeling hopeful and thinking plausibly, while acknowledging that we do not know for sure.

And this, from an atheist.