Faith

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Cassius Clay
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Faith

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Gotcha [wink]
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Cassius Clay
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Re: Faith

Post by Cassius Clay »

I really do want to talk about faith, tho...if anyone's interested. The older I get the more I realize how important personal faith is for well-being. And it doesn't have to be belief in things you find ridiculous or what not. Your value-systems and ethical beliefs can be a kind of faith. Just belief in yourself can also be a type of faith.

I think faith is simply belief or trust in something without reason/justification. But reason has two possible meanings here: 1) Proof/evidence or 2) a specific outcome/goal/end in mind. People tend to think more of the former when talking about "faith". The latter is why reducing values or morals to their "utility"(only holding a value for it's justifications, not for it's own sake) may not be the healthiest thing in the world. Having a value-system that acts as a consistent guiding anchor, that doesn't succumb to pressures of changing circumstances nor to the whims of ego, is an important kind of faith.
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aels
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Re: Faith

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I agree. I have zero religious or spiritual faith but I do have a set of moral principles that I believe in and to which I try to remain consistent. I have my beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important and I believe in these things irrespective of whether they profit me in any way. I recently had someone tell me they admired my integrity (humblebraaaaaag), which was flattering but also pretty surprising since I've never particularly looked at myself in that way and my principles are as much about necessity as morality - as you say, it's important to my wellbeing and sense of self to live within an ethical framework.
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Cassius Clay
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Re: Faith

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I agree with your agreement. And I also agree that your integrity is admirable.
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Derived Absurdity
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Re: Faith

Post by Derived Absurdity »

So this means you two are voting for Jill Stein, right? [none]
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Cassius Clay
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Re: Faith

Post by Cassius Clay »

No. We're rigging the election for Hillary by secretly allowing British women with common sense a vote.
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ampi
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Re: Faith

Post by ampi »

What ever this is worth I have this thought. I find faith in my life an important aspect to my well being. I was raised Catholic but no longer engage in that religious belief. I had a severe crisis of life happen when I found myself posing the big questions such as "Why am I here?" and "What's my purpose in life?" and so on. Of course no big and hairy lights showed up to spell in neon across the sky answers to those questions but what happened instead were small seemingly unconnected circumstances that happened to direct me to things that started to connect with other things. I followed those small connections to find larger connections and slowly things started to make sense to me about what concerned my well being which made me feel better about my life. It makes it to feel a bit like magic happening and with each connection makes it seem larger than before. Some would decry it as coincidence which is fine for them but for me had a significance which carried meaning and thus my faith was born. I really am loathe to say "I know what I know", which cannot be proved but this is where faith can sustain an individual when proof need not necessarily be employed. I would love to have what I see and experience all the time to be under scrutiny and proved under scientific methods but that won't happen now. I just keep the faith and watch things unfold in stupendous ways when it comes to just me in my little life.
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Islandmur
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Re: Faith

Post by Islandmur »

@ampi had similar experiences. when things need to happen they just happen... when i need things they come... it's uncanny at times. yet awesome
ampi
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Re: Faith

Post by ampi »

Island Mur: Those are the things that tries and keeps faith going at the same time.
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