What Is Your Faith About?
I've been having some online conversations with a group of atheists on and off over the last few weeks. If you have ever wanted to clearly figure out what your beliefs come down to, have a conversation with someone who does not share your point of view. I try to put quite a bit of effort into understanding my own faith and I think this has been very productive.
Notice I said conversation, not argument. There has been a lot of arguing that has taken place, but that is not the productive part. Getting past the disagreeable parts has been difficult, especially when God is referred to as "your imaginary friend," or "your sky-daddy." When you can find a way to overcome those kind of limitations and get to what your faith is about, it feels like progress.
There are a lot of definitions that have to be agreed upon: faith, evidence, experience, revelation, knowledge, valid, proof, belief, etc. Most of the differences of opinion on the terms come from very different ways of looking at the same concepts.
I had entered the overall debate by correcting some errors in the use of scripture, writing "There is a big difference between being a follower of Christ and a literal biblical fundamentalist. The took considerable exchanges to sort out, but has resulted in some actual conversations between a few individuals. One conversation finally came around to what I actually believed or based my individual faith upon. I replied: "Chapters 5, 6, 7 of the gospel of Matthew and Mark 12:28-34 are a good place to begin." When asked if that was all there was to it I followed up with His public teachings in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) would be the best place to begin. If that doesn't do anything for you, nothing else I can say would matter."
I guess what I have learned in this exchange is that we should not expect someone to come to faith by losing an argument. We must find a way to show in the way we live our lives that our faith makes a difference and should be worth looking at.
Perhaps it is only a desire to follow that begins the real process of faith.
Be Blessed!
Michael
Notice I said conversation, not argument. There has been a lot of arguing that has taken place, but that is not the productive part. Getting past the disagreeable parts has been difficult, especially when God is referred to as "your imaginary friend," or "your sky-daddy." When you can find a way to overcome those kind of limitations and get to what your faith is about, it feels like progress.
There are a lot of definitions that have to be agreed upon: faith, evidence, experience, revelation, knowledge, valid, proof, belief, etc. Most of the differences of opinion on the terms come from very different ways of looking at the same concepts.
I had entered the overall debate by correcting some errors in the use of scripture, writing "There is a big difference between being a follower of Christ and a literal biblical fundamentalist. The took considerable exchanges to sort out, but has resulted in some actual conversations between a few individuals. One conversation finally came around to what I actually believed or based my individual faith upon. I replied: "Chapters 5, 6, 7 of the gospel of Matthew and Mark 12:28-34 are a good place to begin." When asked if that was all there was to it I followed up with His public teachings in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) would be the best place to begin. If that doesn't do anything for you, nothing else I can say would matter."
I guess what I have learned in this exchange is that we should not expect someone to come to faith by losing an argument. We must find a way to show in the way we live our lives that our faith makes a difference and should be worth looking at.
Perhaps it is only a desire to follow that begins the real process of faith.
Be Blessed!
Michael
posted by McHonza at 7:47 AM
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