InvisibleBlack
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Joined: 7/24/2009
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quote:
ORIGINAL: thompsonx
quote:
Is all religious belief based on "blind faith" in your estimation?
Could you tell us which ones you think are not?
I tend to view "faith" as "belief that is not based on proof". An "informed faith" wouldn't be faith.
To this end, once you reach the limits of what is empirically provable - everything has to be taken on faith. The question then becomes "In the absence of any significant evidence, where do you place your faith?". Following this, everyone must have faith in something - even if it's just the workings of random chance or in the existance of a universe which operates solely based on observable physical laws.
For example - there is no objective evidence for an afterlife. There is anecdotal evidence (ghost sightings, near-death experiences, etc.) but this cannot be substantiated (unless, of course, you yourself have seen a ghost or had an out-of-body experience or whatever). Absent such first-hand experience, to say that there is definitely not an afterlife is as much an act of faith as saying that there definitely is.
I would suppose that "blind faith" would be faith in something that has been clearly and repeatedly contradicted by empirical testing and evidence - such as a continuing belief in lumninous ether after Eistein's General Theory of Relativity was validated, or belief in a "flat Earth" after orbital photography was developed.
The problem with accusing someone of "blind faith" is that many things which are viewed as "scientifically" accepted (and I use the term very loosely) aren't really scientifically proven. A theory that seems to fit the available facts isn't valid until it can be empirically experimented upon and tested.
Belief in one or more deities would, by my definition, be faith but not blind faith since it isn't possible to provide sufficient evidence to either confirm or refute their existence. Belief that Elvis is still alive would be blind faith since it is not only possible to read his obituary and talk to witnesses of his death and burial but if truly necessary, one could exhume his body and verify his death.
< Message edited by InvisibleBlack -- 5/5/2010 12:23:52 PM >
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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.
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