Is faith/belief an opinion?

[clarabellabunting]

Just that, really.

I was recently having a really interesting discussion with a friend of mine who is a Christian in which he tried to explain to me (a non-believer) about why he was a Christian, believed in God, etc.

I struggled to see his opinion that there was a God as any different than, say, someone's opinion that men and women should have equal rights, or someone's opinion that homosexuality is right/wrong. And I thought it should therefore be subject to the same sort of questioning as any other opinion that someone expresses publicly.

He, however, kept falling back on "that's my faith, though" as if it was in a different category. He also said that nothing anyone could say to him would ever change it, which seemed strange to me because I'm always checking and questioning my 'beliefs' to make sure I'm holding them for the right reason and am not mistaken. I would hate to start out from a position of 'nobody is ever going to change my mind about this'.

What do other believers think? Obviously someone's opinion about the existence of God can be much more personal and important than other opinions they hold. But isn't your decision to believe/not believe essentially the same process as many other decisions you make about what you think about any number of other issues in life?

[gingerdodger]

I feel that the arguments on here have become circular for me. I have explained my views, the fact that I don't have the answers and tried to give my perspective on the initial question.

I completely understand that this is a viewpoint that others will not subscribe to but I feel that the conversation is no longer constructive for me and whilst I thank you for the opportunity to describe my view I do not feel the need to justify my faith, only to explain my views, which I feel I have done to the best of my ability so I am not sure it is helpful to continue with this discussion as I will just end up repeating myself which does not promote a good discussion but might just lead to entrenched views rather than a good exchange.

Thanks for the opportunity to think through my thoughts, always helpful for me.

[capsium]

An opinion, to me, suggests something singular. Faith is something more, world view comes close but Faith encompasses more than just a view of this world.

Ethos and paradigm come closer in meaning to Faith, I think. However these words are pretty secular and can include a group of beliefs which can be changed by evidence, whereas Faith involves belief in things which are not / have not been seen, that is it is a Spiritual belief.

[capsium]

I don't know of another single word that has exactly the same meaning as Faith...

[headinhands]

Thanks ginger. Let me just clarify something though. It's no that I don't understand what you're staying, it's that I don't see how they fit in with the biblical god. Having faith in a god that is nebulous, passive and indifferent doesn't cause problems because there's no clash with reality or with a text but when we start to say 'I believe in god A and he is like this and does this and that is his message' then there's problems because there's a world of evidence that runs counter to it. So that's the nub of he issue here, how you get it to all fit even when logically it doesn't connect together.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

How did you get it all to fit when you were a believer Head?

[Hakluyt]

Easy. Believers just don't give any headspace to the contrary evidence.

[headinhands]

How did you get it all to fit

It would be easy for me to assume it's about age seeing how my faith dropped away with the increasing years but I know there are many whose faith remains intact as they get older. I honestly don't know how I did it, I hope hanging around here will help me make sense of it.

[Hakluyt]

You just have to keep your mind firmly closed to any sort of evidence based thinking. Once you start trying to reconcile the inconsistencies it starts being impossible. If you just say to yourself- I don't understand, but one day the whole an will be revealed to me and it will all make sense- there's no problem making room for it.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

You have been here for a while Head, have you made any headway in understanding your previous self?