Faith - 1.confidence or trust in a person or thing 2. belief that is not based on proof.
During the course of any exchange of ideas or theories on the subject of religion, the role of faith in this or that religion is most always discussed. To the faithful it's a trait to be admired. To some of the non religious it is considered a damaging trait that hinders one's ability to think logically. But it is all relative. The fact that someone has faith in something doesn't make them admirable or a disgrace, but it's what that person has faith in. The list of different religions is extensive enough without taking into consideration each sect or denomination that branches from each, and each denomination is full of congregants that are absolutely positive their God is THE God.
How do we understand who God is? How do we understand what his motives and intentions are? How do we understand what he expects of us? The fact is that faith in God is really just faith in what man tells us about God. Very few of us at any time in recent years have been called to a burning bush that can talk, predicted an apocalyptic flood, or when confronted with a river blocking our path been able to split it in opposite directions so we could stroll on through rather than searching for or building a bridge across. And if these things had happened we would have admitted the man who was talking to a bush into a hospital for the insane, recognized the second man as a great meteorologist, and given the third man a spot on television right before Criss Angel's "Mindfreak."
But let's take another moment to analyze faith as an attribute. Is it a trait to strive for or is believing in something without any proof the mark of an irrational man? If asking this question, the answer would most certainly be that it is a trait to strive for because if there's something that most denominations of Christianity can agree upon, it's that their eternal souls greatly depend on, if not singularly depend on this trait alone.
But if you were to ask the same question to someone who is critical of religion and the effects religion has on society, he may see faith as an evil, brain-numbing attribute in a man. It's not uncommon that someone feels so strongly that religion has more negative effects on society than positive. They could have had a grandmother who was burned at the stake because she was believed to be a witch. They could have had a brother killed by a member of the Gestapo who was convinced he was doing God's work. They could have been engaged to their high school sweetheart who happened on September 11, 2001 when a man who believed by flying a plane into a building, taking his own life and as many others as possible, he would be rewarded in the afterlife.
Why are their such contrasting views on whether or not faith is admirable, and why can't anyone agree on who God is in the first place? Like I stated earlier, no one living today knew Jesus, Muhammad, or Joseph Smith so when it comes to having faith that Jesus was the son of God, born of a virgin, and resurrected, or that Muhammad and Joseph Smith were prophets, we don't have the luxury of believing what they tell us to believe about them but we have to choose to believe what others tell us they wanted us to believe about them. We have holy books about them and preachers and believers, but how do these help us know what to believe in? For every scripture in most every holy book it's hard not to find two or three others that contradict it. I'd be surprised if you could meet with four preachers and have all four agree about anything at all from the literacy of Genesis to abortion. Christianity alone consists of about as many denominations as there are jelly bean flavors. For every man claiming to be a Christian holding up a sign that says "God Hates Fags" at a funeral, there's another man claiming to be a Christian who says we should love and accept homosexuals.
Make makes God in his own image. If you are a forgiving and compassionate, your God will be forgiving and compassionate. If you're a sexist, racist, homophobic asshole, you're God will be a sexist, racist, homophobic asshole as well. So to address the claims that faith is an attribute worth striving for or is one to be avoided, I can't definitively agree with either because we choose, ourselves, what we have faith in. Faith, in general, is just confidence or trust in something or someone. Thomas Edison had faith that his theories and experiments would eventually lead to the invention of the light bulb. Few would claim this type of faith is a barrier.
Faith and people's view of the subject are very interesting to me. I've read extensively on the subject several different books from authors with quite contrasting viewpoints on the subject, from Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ" to Christopher Hitchens "God is Not Great." After reading books from such diverse authors on the subject, I started to realize something. The converted non religious who have been brought up in a religious family and culture who claim faith in general is a hindrance are maybe the most faithful of all. They have faith that what they believe or don't believe in won't affect their afterlives, because most don't believe in an afterlife at all. Most Christians, on the other hand, believe perfect faith in Jesus Christ will be rewarded while the lack thereof will result in eternal damnation. An atheist holds an absolute belief that what God or Gods he believes in means nothing, mos theists hold an absolute belief that what God or Gods he believes in means everything.
Which of these people really know what faith feels like? Is it really that difficult to acquire a belief in something your parents, your teachers, your friends instill in you from birth? Especially if your family belongs to a religion that believes in a literal hell as a punishment of disbelief. A literal hell is what drives many who claim to be Christians to believe "just in case." They say that if they're wrong, nothing happens; but if they're right they avoid eternal damnation. But if our eternal souls depend on belief in something , I don't think that's going to cut it. If the true test of mankind here on Earth is to believe that something miraculous happened because someone told you it happened, then this type of believer will probably be going to hell if there is one. They may pass with a "C" though, I'm not sure.
Faith in a God, like the Christian God is faith without consequence. What I mean is if you have perfect faith and this truly is the measure of a man, you win everything. But if you refuse a belief that a kind, selfless philanthropist deserves eternal punishment because he doesn't believe in talking snakes, but find out this truly is the measure of a man, you lose everything.
Most non religious people wouldn't like me saying they have faith in something. Just hearing the word faith makes some of them cringe. "Do you have faith that there is no giant seahorses orbiting around Jupiter?" they might ask. Believing nothing happens after you die is still having faith in something in my opinion. One definition of faith is belief that is not based on proof, and to make any claim made about what happens after we die cannot be based on proof because none of us have died.
Unfortunately, faith has taken center stage at most churches and synagogues. A good deal of sermons are about the morality of this or that action or about what God or Jesus would think about this economic policy or that social issue or about heaven and hell. Many of us are so busy looking around at who isn't in attendance on Sunday morning so we can talk about why he or she never comes to church anymore at lunch, that we miss the lonely newcomer in the corner. Instead of asking why someone who usually comes to church isn't there today we need to be asking why that someone who usually isn't at church IS there today. They may have nowhere else to go. They probably didn't come to hear about how evolution can be proved or disproved, but rather how to deal with the regret and guilt of a recent abortion or how to deal with an abusive husband. They probably aren't there to hear about why homosexuality is unacceptable, but maybe they've been out of a job for a month and need help getting back on their feet. We get so caught up with what we believe in that we forget what church is supposed to be in the first place. Church isn't supposed to be a place where we judge someone's lifestyle as moral or immoral and debate. Church is supposed to be PEOPLE that the sick can come to for treatment. Church is supposed to be PEOPLE that the homeless can come to for shelter. Church is supposed to be PEOPLE where the outcasts can come to for acceptance, where the hungry can come for food, where the guilty can come for forgiveness, and not just on Sunday morning or Saturday night but every day of the week.