What role does faith play?

tnlabaw

It plays a big part for me. I am a Christian and very far from a perfect one, but I know that He accepts me the way that I am.

We have free will to believe or not to believe.

I can't understand why so much bashing from non believers towards believers?

I haven't seen any bashing of believers at all. Where did you see bashing?

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

?That doesn't make sense. It takes faith to believe in God and it takes no faith not to believe.

As a Christian I think it takes a huge amount of faith to believe there is no God. If you are wrong, you won't know until it's too late but if I am wrong, it won't matter, I'll just die and that will be the end of that.

Someone posted that they have evidence that there is no God but where is the Christian's evidence. I have all the evidence I need in this earth that revolves on an "invisible" axis every day and I have further evidence in the bible, which was witness by thousands and thousands of people. But I would love to know where the evidence is that there is no God.

Agree!!

doorki

To the OP, I notice a lot of comments from atheists, which is fine as you asked for opinions on this topic, and they are giving it.



For me, I know I've not treated this body, made in His image, that He gave me with proper respect, and that is among my motivating factors.




Believe that you can be the person God wants you to be, and that's even better.

Just wondering.......if we are made in his image.......why aren't we all invisible?

Also.....how do you know what kind of person god wants you to be? Do you get a phone call every day with your instructions?

God's word in the bible is what gives us our instructions . Nope, no phone calls...that would be nice though!

but wasn't the bible written by man?

The words were put on paper by specific men...but every aspect of the bible was directly inspired and given from God. Honestly, it is much easier to understand when you read it I didn't understand before I came to know Christ.

I've read the bible as well as the gospels that were not chosen to be included. Were the Apocrypha also inspired by God?

Mindarin

My faith in God is the number 1 reason that I'm losing weight. I want to glorify Him with my body. Also, I'm sick of being ruled by my appetites. My page title actually comes from a bible verse about that.

russellma

I asked this earlier, but I believe it got lost in the shuffle:

From an atheist's point of view, what is faith?

Faith is blind belief in something without any proof.

Then, we ALL have faith in something. No?

For some things, we (meaning all of us) have to accept anecdotal evidence or the results of the process of elimination, because there is currently no solid "proof" to back up what we believe to be true.

Chipmaniac

None

doorki

It plays a big part for me. I am a Christian and very far from a perfect one, but I know that He accepts me the way that I am.

We have free will to believe or not to believe.

I can't understand why so much bashing from non believers towards believers?

I haven't seen any bashing of believers at all. Where did you see bashing?

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

?That doesn't make sense. It takes faith to believe in God and it takes no faith not to believe.

As a Christian I think it takes a huge amount of faith to believe there is no God. If you are wrong, you won't know until it's too late but if I am wrong, it won't matter, I'll just die and that will be the end of that.

Someone posted that they have evidence that there is no God but where is the Christian's evidence. I have all the evidence I need in this earth that revolves on an "invisible" axis every day and I have further evidence in the bible, which was witness by thousands and thousands of people. But I would love to know where the evidence is that there is no God.

So it is Pascal's Wager. You believe because not believing is too risky. Science has shown how this invisible axis stuff works, too.

p0pr0cksnc0ke

:yawn: the good ol Atheist vs Christian again? C'mon. :huh:

bethmakesmusic

Just to clear this up, self-responsibilty and Christian Faith are not opposites. I think faith can help you become more "self responsible".

Pspetal

The only way my faith plays a role is that I don't eat beef and don't eat non-vegetarian food on festival days. Culture plays a huge role though. I cannot eat food prepared in non-Indian style for more than 4 days at a time. Also, I cannot eat just vegetables or just soup or just meat. I have to have either rice or rotis (unleavened flat bread) with it. I also eat different foods during different times of the year...

iceqieen

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

I believe you are misunderstanding what an atheist is :flowerforyou:

Your answer makes me wonder, and perhaps you can help us to understand you better.

From an atheist's point of view, what is "faith"?

I believe a few people have now answered your question. Just wanted to say
PS: I'm not an atheist, though I respect people's choice to be one.. I also don't believe in one all powerfull god, and yet I respect people's choice to believe so - in both cases as long as they don't try to force their opinions down my throat.. never met an atheist that tried to recruit me, met plenty of deity believers who did try.

And I have allot of respect to those who have posted here who do believe in a god but do not put the blame on it for making them fat but instead own up to their responsibility :flowerforyou:

hadesflame

To the OP, I notice a lot of comments from atheists, which is fine as you asked for opinions on this topic, and they are giving it.



For me, I know I've not treated this body, made in His image, that He gave me with proper respect, and that is among my motivating factors.




Believe that you can be the person God wants you to be, and that's even better.

Just wondering.......if we are made in his image.......why aren't we all invisible?

Also.....how do you know what kind of person god wants you to be? Do you get a phone call every day with your instructions?

God's word in the bible is what gives us our instructions . Nope, no phone calls...that would be nice though!

but wasn't the bible written by man?

The words were put on paper by specific men...but every aspect of the bible was directly inspired and given from God. Honestly, it is much easier to understand when you read it I didn't understand before I came to know Christ.

Really, no offense to anyone or their beliefs but this isn't really the point of the OP's question. If you want to convert people, you may want to go somewhere else.
I'm actually surprised that this thread has lasted this long. I understand the OP's question and as innocent as it is, it seems to have started something that doesn't need to be discussed here.
Believe what you want to believe and use whatever you want to reach your goal. If you don't get there though, you have nobody to blame but yourself. If you do get there, congratulate yourself. It's your hard work and dedication that got you there. It makes me wonder sometimes about how little faith people have in themselves when they throw all their faith into someone or something else. TRUST YOURSELF PEOPLE!!

BrettPGH

I asked this earlier, but I believe it got lost in the shuffle:

From an atheist's point of view, what is faith?

Faith is blind belief in something without any proof.

Then, we ALL have faith in something. No?

For some things, we (meaning all of us) have to accept anecdotal evidence or the results of the process of elimination, because there is currently no solid "proof" to back up what we believe to be true.

Depends on how loosely you choose to define "faith".

Yes I have "faith" the sun will rise tomorrow. But that is based on a lifetime of verifiable evidence. I'm also prepared for the very likely possibility that I could be wrong and the sun will not rise.

I do not 100% believe anything for which I can not prove.

Also things like gravity and sub-atomic particles, while invisible to the naked eye, do not require faith. They have been proven to exist and can be measured. Just to stop people from saying that they take faith to believe in.

doorki

I asked this earlier, but I believe it got lost in the shuffle:

From an atheist's point of view, what is faith?

Faith is blind belief in something without any proof.

Then, we ALL have faith in something. No?

For some things, we (meaning all of us) have to accept anecdotal evidence or the results of the process of elimination, because there is currently no solid "proof" to back up what we believe to be true.

But are you willing to change your beliefs in the face of further research that God does not exist? Are you referring to science when you are talking about anecdotal evidence or process of elimination?

RyanDanielle5101

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unravelling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

Since the dawn of man is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their *kitten* off)
The oceans and pangea

See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it wont be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating out while here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

jazzguy4him

Just wanted to drop some truth in the thread to my Athiest buddy's out there:

Athiesm is still having FAITH that nothing higher exists. Just FYI.
---

As for me... I

..."walk by faith, not by sight..." 2 Corinthians 5:7

jerzypeach

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

I believe you are misunderstanding what an atheist is :flowerforyou:

Your answer makes me wonder, and perhaps you can help us to understand you better.

From an atheist's point of view, what is "faith"?

I believe a few people have now answered your question. Just wanted to say
PS: I'm not an atheist, though I respect people's choice to be one.. I also don't believe in one all powerfull god, and yet I respect people's choice to believe so - in both cases as long as they don't try to force their opinions down my throat.. never met an atheist that tried to recruit me, met plenty of deity believers who did.

And I have allot of respect to those who have posted here who do believe in a god but do not put the blame on it for making them fat but instead own up to their responsibility :flowerforyou:

Very well said!

_Timmeh_

None.
In the same way it plays any other role, you make things happen or you don't. With or without the "faith" you can still make it happen.

jodycoady

:yawn: the good ol Atheist vs Christian again? C'mon. :huh:

Yep. Religion, politics, abortion, vegetarianism, boxers, briefs -- these will always spark big arguments

GlassslippersAndFairyDust

It plays a big part for me. I am a Christian and very far from a perfect one, but I know that He accepts me the way that I am.

We have free will to believe or not to believe.

I can't understand why so much bashing from non believers towards believers?

I haven't seen any bashing of believers at all. Where did you see bashing?

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

?That doesn't make sense. It takes faith to believe in God and it takes no faith not to believe.

As a Christian I think it takes a huge amount of faith to believe there is no God. If you are wrong, you won't know until it's too late but if I am wrong, it won't matter, I'll just die and that will be the end of that.

Someone posted that they have evidence that there is no God but where is the Christian's evidence. I have all the evidence I need in this earth that revolves on an "invisible" axis every day and I have further evidence in the bible, which was witness by thousands and thousands of people. But I would love to know where the evidence is that there is no God.

So it is Pascal's Wager. You believe because not believing is too risky. Science has shown how this invisible axis stuff works, too.

Risk has nothing to do with it for me but it is going to be a wonderful benefit. How about you?

IronmanPanda

I sat on the couch and ate oreos and just prayed my pounds away.

If you send me 3 easy payments of $39.99 I will send you the secrets to my success.

jerzypeach

Just wanted to drop some truth in the thread to my Athiest buddy's out there:

Athiesm is still having FAITH that nothing higher exists. Just FYI.
---

As for me... I

..."walk by faith, not by sight..." 2 Corinthians 5:7

More like......there is not enough evidence for a higher power. Therefore, the default position is to accept the Null Hypothesis until such time that there is enough evidence to change our minds on the subject. It's not that many atheists are not willing to accept that a higher power exists......it's just that we haven't seen any good reason to....yet.

BrettPGH

Just wanted to drop some truth in the thread to my Athiest buddy's out there:

Athiesm is still having FAITH that nothing higher exists. Just FYI.
---

As for me... I

..."walk by faith, not by sight..." 2 Corinthians 5:7

FYI you're wrong. It requires no faith to not believe. Does it require faith for you NOT to believe in Bigfoot?

SOME (not Patti) Believers are so condescending and never even recognize it.

doorki

It plays a big part for me. I am a Christian and very far from a perfect one, but I know that He accepts me the way that I am.

We have free will to believe or not to believe.

I can't understand why so much bashing from non believers towards believers?

I haven't seen any bashing of believers at all. Where did you see bashing?

An athiest has to have faith that there is no greater power. Therefore, atheists have faith. Honestly, I believe it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.

?That doesn't make sense. It takes faith to believe in God and it takes no faith not to believe.

As a Christian I think it takes a huge amount of faith to believe there is no God. If you are wrong, you won't know until it's too late but if I am wrong, it won't matter, I'll just die and that will be the end of that.

Someone posted that they have evidence that there is no God but where is the Christian's evidence. I have all the evidence I need in this earth that revolves on an "invisible" axis every day and I have further evidence in the bible, which was witness by thousands and thousands of people. But I would love to know where the evidence is that there is no God.

So it is Pascal's Wager. You believe because not believing is too risky. Science has shown how this invisible axis stuff works, too.

Risk has nothing to do with it for me but it is going to be a wonderful benefit. How about you?

That is the essence of the wager, you lose nothing if you believe and nothing happens when life ends. Life still ends. I prefer to live a good life and be good to my fellow human beings before I become worm food....or maybe a tree.

tikikris

Zero.

macpatti

Believers are so condescending and never even recognize it.

Can you change that to "some believers", please?

brianyeager

When you look at your watch today would you ever conclude that one day it just came into existence without a designer. The existence of the universe and how everything works together is evidence of intelligent design. Man's problem is that most want to reject the existence of a being with greater intelligence. Man wants to deny faith, but then lean upon unreasonable guesses and call that evidence. Just like your watch, you have been designed and created.

We know that God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1). We know that God created man (Genesis 1:26-27). Isaiah and Jeremiah penned the following: “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else... I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me” (Isaiah 45:18 and Jeremiah 27:5). We know that God made man upright, but man has sought out many inventions (Ecclesiastes 7:29). So, this article is not going to be about observing the beauty of man, but of the heaven and earth.

The Psalmist wrote: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained” (Psalms 8:3). Do you feel that way? Do you look at the sky, the moon, and the stars in awe? Do we stand in awe of the beauty of all things God created and the depth of wisdom seen in creation (Ecclesiastes 3:11 and Proverbs 3:19)? What would happen if the sun were closer or further away? Well, we’d freeze or burn up. What would happen if the sea did not have a barrier (Jeremiah 5:22)? Well, we’d see massive flooding and death all over the world. Folks, it is not a mystery to Bible students how all things stand in perfect balance (Nehemiah 9:6). However, it should still be an awesome sight to behold (Psalms 33:8).

How often do you stand outside and look at the sky? Do you listen to the birds? Here in El Paso we have a privilege in the clear sky we see nearly year round. Coming from parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania where it was cloudy more than clear, I still stand in awe of how bright the sun really is. I look at our night skies here and wonder at the beauty of the stars. There is no way in the world that a thinking person could behold the night skies of El Paso and deny our Lord as the Creator. The wonders of our universe clearly declare the existence of the Almighty!


Certainly, we could show the existence of God through Scientific foreknowledge in the Bible (Job 26:7, Isaiah 40:22, Leviticus 17:11-14, Ecclesiastes 1:7; 11:3, Amos 9:6, II Samuel 22:16, and Job 38:16). We could go through many prophesies that were fulfilled (Psalms 34:20; John 19:32-36 / Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23, etc.). We could show forth eye witness accounts of the life and works of Jesus Christ (Acts 3:13-15). However, the creation of our Lord does speak for itself: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork... And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Psalms 19:1 and Acts 14:15-17).

What do you see when you look at the creatures which roam upon the earth? The book of Job declares: “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:7-10). God’s creation speaks for itself. Yet, there is more to wonder about when we look at things created by God. Consider the wonder of how He did it!


“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light... And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so {see also Genesis 1:11; 14-15; 20; 24; 26; etc.}... By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast... Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Genesis 1:3; 6; 9, Psalms 33:6-9, and Hebrews 11:3).


What more could be said than that which we see around us every day and every night? Maybe we should all consider taking more time to look at the wonders which our Lord has created. Consider the following words from the Apostle Paul as our conclusion: “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:23-31).

BrettPGH

Believers are so condescending and never even recognize it.

Can you change that to "some believers", please?

Yes Patti, sorry...


knew she'd come and ruin my fun *kicks rocks*

mrmanmeat

I am interested in hearing what role your faith plays in your weight lose goals/success

None.

I'm the only role in this. Me and my mind.

jazzguy4him

More like......there is not enough evidence for a higher power. Therefore, the default position is to accept the Null Hypothesis until such time that there is enough evidence to change our minds on the subject. It's not that many atheists are not willing to accept that a higher power exists......it's just that we haven't seen any good reason to....yet.

---

Have you ever seen a baby born? Watched a thunderstorn? Been healed of disease? Smelled wild flowers? Planted a garden? Felt truly loved?

Those are just a few reasons most folks find it impossible not to believe.

tikikris

Can I change my mind and forget that I clicked on this topic?