Faith - religious or otherwise.

[Warum]

Do you have religious faith?
What in?
Why?
Do you have faith in something other than religion?
Open to all sorts of answers, from those of faith, those unsure, those who have no faith, those who have faith but feel like religion is also used to manipulate/taken to extremes in order to gain power, those who wish there was a god but think there probably isn't, other reasons I haven't thought of....
My view is that there is no god(s), and that religion is basically a control tool, however I also respect the right of others to take a completely different view, for their own reasons, and am genuinely interested to hear.
Has faith/lack of made your life easier/more difficult?

Please can we keep it respectful - so we can vehemently disagree with opinion, belief etc, but no personal attacks.

^^
The poll is specifically about religious faith:
YABU - I have faith, YANBU - I don't have faith

No, I’m about as atheist as they come regarding theology and scriptures (and other belief systems). Humans made it up and continue to make things up because they cannot 1. Live without highly set rules with what is deemed to be horrendous consequences of not followed, 2. Self awareness comes with the price of a fear of stopping to exist, so the thought of an afterlife is a huge comfort to many 3. Humans are very egotistical creatures who need some validation that we are special and set apart from all other creatures on this planet.

Yes I have faith. I believe in God. I’m burnt out by religion though. Too many leaders who just want power and control and lots of money. Totally not what Jesus taught.

No, I don't have any faith in anything in the sense that I am aware that anything I believe might be total nonsense.

I do trust the scientific method and believe in things like gravity, evolution and also a hell lot of stuff that I don't really understand or have experienced myself. I mean I neither understand why the universe is expanding or what exactly that means nor do I experience it myself but I still believe it's true because people I trust (but don't know) think so. So that's the closest thing to faith I've got. I mean you have to take some things for granted otherwise life becomes too difficult. I don't have any faith in a religious or spiritual sense.

I used to be quite anti religion but these days I've changed my mind a bit on that. Yuval Harari in sapiens has a really interesting theory that religion (and money funnily enough) helped humans to work together and trust each other, which has meant that we have achieved astonishing things.

I also think that actually it's not religion that is so harmful and dangerous but faith. Religion is just a collection of cultural rites and traditions. It often brings people together and builds communities. Having (religious) faith on the other hand means believing in something without rigorous evidence. Faith to me is the opposite of critical thinking and that is what makes it so dangerous. Once someone has faith or believes that faith is a good enough reason to do things you can theoretically get them to do anything without having to justify it.

Thank you for all the interesting replies so far.

I have faith in the people I love, but not in any kind of higher power.

I have no faith at all in the Abrahamic God but my own faith in my own Gods runs deep.

Actually probably faith is the wrong word. I have seen and experienced too many things from them to need blind faith.

Yes, I have faith. I'm Church of England.

I agree religion is often used to manipulate/control.

My hunch is that what I find easiest/best to express as faith, is at root exactly the same thing that plenty of other people express in different ways. I have a friend who is a dedicated runner and she gets a huge sense of peacefulness and connection from running enormously long races across beautiful country. It might be that what I understand as 'God' is the same sort of thing.

Agnostic here - scientist too. I also feel people use religion as a tool to control others which is very sad and those who do it are abhorrent

I've no issue with religious people / followers of faith, as long as they keep it to themselves and don't force upon me or my kids

Yes and no.

I’m a Sikh, I don’t however believe in god. I don’t think being a Sikh really makes any significant differences in my life, yes I go to temple for events etc, but if I wasn’t a Sikh I would simply go to more athiest things than I currently do. It has an impact on my hair, and I get to wear pretty steel jewellery. Most religion is just cultural tradition rather than actual belief in a god or some form of higher power. I don’t think I would be a different person if I wasn’t a Sikh.

People who have their personality shaped by their religion tend to be blind faith types, which I personally don’t think is healthy, to me thats more verging on cult like levels of belief.

I have faith. I believe in God. My father was a minister so I grew up with it, though we were never bible bashers. My dad died a young man which did make me wonder why a man who had dedicated himself to God would be taken so young. It seemed so unfair (still does). I believe in heaven and that our loved ones wait for us there.

But my faith is probably quite limited. If people ask why God lets things like what's happening in the ME happen, I would say 'because he gave man free will to be as nice or nasty as that man chooses' but when it comes to natural disasters, I have no real response as to why God allows that type of suffering.

I don't feel however as though I need to justify what I believe to someone else. I don't appreciate people trying to twist what I believe to try and make me admit it's not possible or to agree with them that God can't exist. Let me believe what I believe and I'll let you believe what you believe (or not).