Definition Essay: Do We Have Faith?

883 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Poetic analysis of Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31:25 says, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." (NIV, Proverbs 31:25) This woman displays trust in God with her plans and has no need to worry about the days to come. Life can be scary, and hard to understand, but only God can control what will happen next. All you can do is have faith. To have faith you must trust someone or something and believe in it. When we sit down in a chair, we do not stare at it and think about whether it is going to hold us or not, we just plop down in the seat. That demonstrates faith, sitting in that chair without contemplating it, you have faith that it will hold you up. Dictionary.com defines faith as, “confidence or trust in a person or thing, and belief that is not based on proof.” Faith means having trust and believing in something that will help you as you go through life, and not worrying about the future. …show more content…

When you have faith, you do not have to worry, but as humans we do. Having faith speaks of confidence, trust, hope, loyalty, and belief. You cannot say you have faith in someone, then go and say that you do not trust them. It is easy to have faith in the small things, and the easy things, but that is not what faith is. Faith is not saying you believe in something that you cannot trust. You just become unfaithful, disloyal, and mistrust to the person or thing that you try, but fail, to have faith in. Faith does not mean disloyalty, unfaithfulness, and mistrust, for faith means you have to choose whether you can trust it or

Show More
Related

  • A Prayer For Owen Meany

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of the various answers to this question, I'll start out with "faith cannot exist alongside doubt." The two ARE mutually exclusive. This goes with the fact that complete faith means just that. Faith means "complete confidence that a person or a plan etc" (according to WordNet). To us, to have faith you cannot doubt. One example of this would be when Owen keeps asking John whether or not the statue is there, even though he can't see it through the fog. John's only answer is "I just know it." Owen replies with "that's how I feel about God." Now, John's "belief" is based on the fact that he's seen the statue in this position before, and he reasons that it could not have moved since he last saw it. Owen takes it a step farther and calls it faith.

    Read More

  • Essay On A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fourth component of faith is that we need to understand that faith can act as fear, fascination, or both of these qualities at the same time. The fifth component of faith is that doubt is a major product that will always exist with faith. The last component of faith is that we need a community in order to have a “language of faith”. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story

    Read More

  • The Role of Faith in Field of Dreams

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    Faith is an important aspect in everybody. It helps us see God, and believe in him. Our faith is always tested when there is a hard theological decision to make or somebody else trying to break your bold with God. The movie Field of Dreams, is a great example of how staying true to your faith can sometimes be hard.

    Read More

  • The Hero's Journey in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    Faith is accepting what you are taught or told without trying to prove or disprove it, rather than discovering it through experience. Those who believe in God have faith. It has not been proven that God exists; similarly, it has not been proven that humans are kind, honest, and good by nature. Young Goodman Brown is a character in "Young Goodman Brown," who leaves his known world in Salem village and travels an unknown road in a dark forest in the middle of the night, a common motif in literature better known as the Hero's journey, and is faced with obstacles. He must decide if he will carry his journey out till the end, or turn back and not learn the truth about himself and other humans.

    Read More

  • Dynamics Of Faith By Paul Tillich Summary

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich redefines faith as the dynamic state of being ultimately concerned about some object that is perceived as being “ultimate.” An ultimate concern demands everything, even including ones most valuable possessions and their moral values, but in return promises everything including total fulfillment, salvation, etc. He goes on to explain symbols of faith, their meaning and their characteristics.

    Read More

  • Wesleyan Essentials in a Multicultural Society

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faith is the way an individual responds to the grace of God. Faith is only possible through God and cannot be obtained without God. “Faith is the appropriate way, in which humans respond to the provenience, justifying, and sanctifying grace of God. Human being can and must be collaborators with God in the great work of redemption”(p. 78, Campbell and Burns). Wesley believe that sanctification is by faith and that faith is only possible through the grace of God towards us.

    Read More

  • Common Misunderstandings Of Faith By Terrence W. Tilley

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    If you were to take a survey on views of faith, you would come up with a million different definitions. To me, faith is taking risks in situations where there is no fear of the outcome. Faith is confidence, sureness, and bravery. If you have no faith, then you have no reason to go out in the world and survive. Faith is also a positive mindset and energy you embody. According to the book, “What is Faith?”, the author, Terrence W. Tilley feels that faith is a relationship between the one who has faith and the irreducible energizing source of meaning and center of value in one’s life. In the definition, “One” means the object of faith and the relationship between them. He takes the concept of faith from a late writer, David Foster Wallace, to key point his argument in the book. Wallace’s concept was that we don’t understand what faith is and how faith shapes the course of our lives. Tilley supports his claim by discussing the common misunderstandings of faith.

    Read More

  • The Nature Of Faith In Paul Tillich's What Faith Is?

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    In my opinion Paul Tillich makes the most valid point regarding the nature of religious beliefs as defined by him in “What faith is?” Religious beliefs have faith as its underlying principle. Tillich defines faith as “the state of being ultimately concerned and that the dynamics of faith are the dynamics of man’s ultimate concern” (Tillich1). Man has many concerns which encompass his day to day survival, however; unlike other creatures his concerns include matters that are social, political and spiritual in nature. Man’s quest to find answers to these concerns that transcend matters of day to day physical existence is addressed in the realm of spirituality which Tillich and other Theologians define as faith.

    Read More

  • Faith In Gilgamesh

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    The definition of faith is, as a strong belief or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. The fact that someone has faith doesn’t mean that they won’t face difficult circumstances, such as renunciation, the loss of a loved one, or deception; rather they trust in their god or gods to carry them through their troubling circumstances to the other side. The Great Aten, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Hebrew Bible all includes, aspects of faith; including creation, love, and the loss of a life.

    Read More

  • is it justified to have faith

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    Is it ever justified for us to believe in anything on insufficient evidence? William Clifford and Joseph Long have different answers to this question. Clifford thinks that it is always morally wrong because we have a moral obligation to exam our beliefs epistemically. On the contrary, Long argues that there are prudent values to believe something without absolute justification, therefore, it is permissible to do so.

    Read More

  • Faith and Reason

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pope John Paul II once said, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Fallible Blogma) Based on this significant and powerful quote, one can infer that faith and reason are directly associated and related. It can also be implied that the combination of faith and reason allows one to seek information and knowledge about truth and God; based on various class discussions and past academic teachings, it is understood that both faith and reason are the instruments that diverse parties are supposed to use on this search for truth and God. There are many stances and viewpoints on the issues of faith and reason. Some believe that both of these ideas cannot and should not be combined; these parties deem that faith and reason must be taken as merely separate entities. However, this writer does not understand why both entities cannot be combined; both terms are so closely compatible that it would make sense to combine the two for a common task. Based on various class discussions and readings, there are many philosophers and theologians who have certain opinions regarding faith, reason and their compatibility; these philosophers include Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The following essay will examine each of the previously stated philosopher’s viewpoints on faith and reason, and will essentially try to determine whether or not faith and reason are ultimately one in the same.

    Read More

  • Faith and Reason

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    In exploring what faith really is, we must remove the stigmatism of being purely religiously based. Faith, in its truest form, is the reliance and complete confidence in a set of principles, standards, person, thing, doctrine, theory—anything that cannot be fully proven. While most of faith appears in a religious context, faith can be used in many different ways and in different subjects. The classic example of a chair comes to mind when exploring the meaning of having faith: scientifically, the person must retain the faith that the chair will hold him up when he sits down. This lies in true in science in discussing the forces of the universe throughout the galaxy, scientists cannot yet understand all the knowledge concerning the forces of space, but scientists have faith in the continuation of the forces and account for what is assumed will happen with the forces.

    Read More

  • Paul Tillich's Interpretation Of Faith

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Tillich, faith is more than trust. Later in the text, he argues that many historical conflicts have affected from the misinterpretation of faith as an act of knowledge reinforced by religious authority. In Summation, Tillich describes that faith is not an act of knowledge connected to unpredictability and also faith is not a belief which stands on incomplete evidence or verification, therefore, it does not have to be supplemented by an act of choice and the will to believe does not develop

    Read More

  • The Nature of Faith

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.

    Read More

  • Faith as a Basis For Knowledge in the Natural Sciences

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Faith has several strengths and weaknesses when used as a basis for knowledge in religion and the natural sciences. In order to fully analyze these strengths and weaknesses and determine which of the two is more prevalent, faith, religion, and the natural sciences should be distinguished from one another. In The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary faith is defined as the “belief and trust in God” or “allegiance to duty or a person” (270), religion as “an organized system of faith and worship” (617), and science as “knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method” (650). Faith may be considered a strong basis for knowledge in religion as religion is usually built around the concept of faith. However, faith may be a weak basis for knowledge in religion as certain teachings in a religion may not have a direct link to the concept of faith. Similarly, in the natural sciences, faith may also be seen as a strong basis for knowledge as a scientist has faith in the hypothesis he may be testing. Likewise, faith may be perceived as a weak basis for knowledge in the natural sciences as faith and the natural sciences tend to offer incongruous solutions to the same problem.

    Read More

More about Definition Essay: Do We Have Faith?

Open Document