Tyrrell_McAllister comments on Faith and theory - Less Wrong

7 Post author: PhilGoetz 26 March 2011 10:26PM

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Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 29 March 2011 11:44:35PM 4 points [-]

Here's a page from a book that I got to by following a citation to the Wikipedia article on Faith. I'm looking at the first complete paragraph.

The text is written by a Christian for Christian readers. As near as I can make out, the page is not arguing that the reader is required to have faith, or that the writer's faith can survive all criticism. So, I wouldn't call it apologetics. The tone is more like, "So, we all have faith here. That's not at issue. But, just what kind of animal is this faith thing that we have? Where does it come from? What role does it play in the fate of our souls?"

Comment author: prase 30 March 2011 11:18:47AM 4 points [-]

You are right. They don't use the word to defend their beliefs, even if I can't figure out for sure what "faith" is supposed to mean there. It seems still to play the role of a sort of stop-sign, with approximate meaning of "acceptance of Catholic dogma".

Still, I am not sure whether there is a concept behind "faith" distinct from "belief immune from scrutiny". I have found a Christian definition where they basically say that faith is a belief which is

  • not based on factual evidence, but rather hearsay
  • absolutely certain
  • motivated by God's personal qualities
  • a supernatural act

That seems to vindicate the naïve atheist view of faith as a belief firmly held in spite of evidence.