Is faith (believing something without evidence) a good or a bad thing - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143126/Radhika-Father-uncle-buried-baby-girl-alive-protect-familys-children-illnesses-India.html ?
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IvanAndreevich's avatar
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FogOnTheBeach's avatar
I just noticed this (I'm a hug fan of your photography!), but I thought I'd throw my opinion in! I understand your interest in this subject, IvanAndreevich, but unfortunately it's a difficult question to answer with a yes or no answer. My first comment is that, with all due respect, the question in the poll in phrased poorly. I think you will find that very few people define "faith" as believing in something without evidence. I find it hard to believe that there would be any good reason to believe in something with no evidence what so ever.

Perhaps a better definition would be C.S. Lewis'. He defined faith as "the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." He is basically saying that every view has doubts. You must have had doubts about your standpoint on God, religion etc. on bad days. We all do. But for whatever reason, you continuously return to your belief that there is no God or that you cannot know if there is a God (correct me if I'm wrong; I'm not entirely familiar with your religious views), despite your mood. People who "lack faith," bounce around from one view to another whenever the mood strikes them, based not on logic or actually believing what they are saying, but on how they are feeling at the moment.

You see, spiritual or religious people do not blindly follow the word of God because our parents told us to. That would be ridiculous and contrary to human nature, which is to question and seek out the truth. If you are interested in the evidence we believe points toward a personal god, you could check out such books as A Case for A Creator by Lee Strobel or Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Those books are from a Christian standpoint, but I'm positive there are thousands of books written from the viewpoints of people of different faiths. I simply don't have the eloquence or space to put that evidence into words here.

So, all in all, my point is that going by your definition of "faith", one could hardly say that was a good thing. But if one looks at the definition of faith from a man such as Lewis, I think you could agree with me that there is a strong argument in it's favor.