is it possible to question a persons faith?

[Mydian]

I am trying to figure out how to logically address a persons faith. It would seem that it cant be questioned because it is faith. That all a person has to say to put a stalemate into any argument is that it is my faith and they believe because they believe. I dont have to except their view of reality but i can not invalidate it. Is their anyway around this?


And sorry if this has been previously asked...

[Mydian]

totally agree with you Mister e .

I have also encountered the statement if bad things are happening in a persons life it is because they are not doing gods will. If we are doing god's will then how do we have free will? Never made sense to me either lol.

[Cephus]

Free will and a truly omniscient, omnipotent God are entirely incompatible, yet this is another area where theists are completely blind to the foolishness of their own belief systems. There are some people who are logical, right up until you hit their most fervently-held beliefs, then they go entirely irrational and refuse to even think about it anymore.

[Mister E]

I agree, just wanted to clear that one up. It's funny that the only way for free will to possibly exist is to exclude any sort of Christian God, haha.

[Cephus]

It's funnier the lengths Christians will go to in order to fit their God into free will. "Oh, God is all-powerful, but he purposely doesn't use his power or his knowledge so people will have free will!"

Then he isn't all-powerful.

[discus70]

I've read someones reply to this topic and he mentioned that God is like the person controlling a pencil. There are many different sides to a pencil (not sure if the pencil is an octagon shape or what, don't have one off hand) and each side is a choice, we get to choose what side but God still knows what is going to happen.


If their god was omni this and omni that then it still doesn't explain why god would allow a child to be born with aids.

[Mister E]

I suppose it isn't foolproof, you could say that "we don't have free will" and argue that it's logically impossible to create a perfect world, therefore God created as "benevolent" a world as possible - but that's inuitively wrong and means true subjectivity doesn't exist. Or you could say that knowing all =/= controlling all, but then God created the universe. :/

[Angel]

I am trying to figure out how to logically address a persons faith. It would seem that it cant be questioned because it is faith. That all a person has to say to put a stalemate into any argument is that it is my faith and they believe because they believe. I dont have to except their view of reality but i can not invalidate it. Is their anyway around this?


And sorry if this has been previously asked...

I believe that applying logic to faith is possible. Faith and evidence isn't always mutually exclusive. To my understanding of the Bible, faith is required not necessarily because the claims can't be tested or evidenced (or at least, some of them are testable) but because God requires it as a way of trust. Perhaps, God wants people to have a type of deep trust in Him even when they can't see any possible solution for themselves on how to get out of a bad situation. It is definitely hard to trust something or in someone in that way and perhaps building a trust to that degree is the whole point. It promotes the idea of the book of Proverbs, "lean not on your own understanding." (which may be a conditional statement, since you have to understand that statement so you can know what it's saying and to apply it).

John 14:11 indicates how faith can lead to evidence or how the two can be used together..

John 14: 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

Miracles were done using faith in God, of course.