What is 'faith'? How do people gain 'faith'?

[Aetas]

For people to explain how they see the concept and the meaning of faith; it is an essential part of religion, and if said by two different people it is often not used with the same meaning.

What is faith, how do people gain faith?

[Miles]

What is faith,

Take your pick.

• faith–noun
  
  1.confidence or trust in a person or thing.
  
  2.belief that is not based on proof.
  
  3.belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion.
  
  4.belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc..
  
  5.a system of religious belief.
  
  6.the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc..
  
  7.the observance of this obligation.
  
  8.Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

how do people gain faith?

By choosing to do so.

[Aetas]

actually had in my first post that perhaps dictionary examples would not be highly conductive, as most do not think in such varied terms, and most do not think/feel an idea in such a way; than i took it out .

Anyway, why would they chose to do so, how do you think the majority of people experience faith (note, not in terms of Christianity but in religion and similar venues for faith), what are connotations on faith (atheists, the spiritual alike; how they view word...good answers for this would be personal views; the people on such a fourm as this have likely thought about and/or feel deeply about the subject, and as such are good sources of info).

example would be how faith can be seen as following orthodox laws of catholic church, or as having 'faith' that a greater being exists (not saying the two cant coincide).

[rsvp]

For people to explain how they see the concept and the meaning of faith; it is an essential part of religion, and if said by two different people it is often not used with the same meaning.

What is faith, how do people gain faith?

Faith comes by hearing; hearing by the word of God.

[cnorman18]

For people to explain how they see the concept and the meaning of faith; it is an essential part of religion, and if said by two different people it is often not used with the same meaning.

What is faith, how do people gain faith?

Faith comes by hearing; hearing by the word of God.

Yeah, I can quote Scripture too. Can you tell us what that means - that is, how that actually works in practice?

Do you HEAR someone read the Word of God and then you have faith? Doesn't seem to work for everyone. Why not?

[rsvp]

For people to explain how they see the concept and the meaning of faith; it is an essential part of religion, and if said by two different people it is often not used with the same meaning.

What is faith, how do people gain faith?

Faith comes by hearing; hearing by the word of God.

Yeah, I can quote Scripture too. Can you tell us what that means - that is, how that actually works in practice?

Do you HEAR someone read the Word of God and then you have faith? Doesn't seem to work for everyone. Why not?

We are told to fill ourselves with God, Jesus and the wholy spirit. How do you suppose we do that since it is a New Testament command for christians? You must read God's word and meditate on it. The more you read and study the more the word works on you. Not every one will do this. It is a choice for us to make. We are free moral agents to do as we please.

[cnorman18]

For people to explain how they see the concept and the meaning of faith; it is an essential part of religion, and if said by two different people it is often not used with the same meaning.

What is faith, how do people gain faith?

Faith comes by hearing; hearing by the word of God.

Yeah, I can quote Scripture too. Can you tell us what that means - that is, how that actually works in practice?

Do you HEAR someone read the Word of God and then you have faith? Doesn't seem to work for everyone. Why not?

We are told to fill ourselves with God, Jesus and the wholy spirit. How do you suppose we do that since it is a New Testament command for christians? You must read God's word and meditate on it. The more you read and study the more the word works on you. Not every one will do this. It is a choice for us to make. We are free moral agents to do as we please.

Freedom is a given. My question is where this FAITH comes from. Just reading the Bible will do it? Surely not if one reads it objectively, as a collection of very old documents written by human beings. One must read it as the very Word of God, right?

But that's assuming faith a priori. Where does it come from, to get to the point one can believe in and read the Word in that way?

[Slopeshoulder]

In our books, we define faith as that which you "affirm, align with, and abide in." The 3A's of faith.

We distinguish it from both knowledge and belief.
So atheists and agnostics etc can also have faith.

Faith is life giving, and in a world of imperfect information that requires existential commitment and choice, it is probably the best thing we have to stay resilient and generative.

And unlike belief, faith is not something that leads to arguments or war.

[cnorman18]

In our books, we define faith as that which you "affirm, align with, and abide in." The 3A's of faith.

Who is the "us" in "our books"?

We distinguish it from both knowledge and belief.

Who's "we"?

So atheists and agnostics etc can also have faith.

In what?

Faith is life giving, and in a world of imperfect information that requires existential commitment and choice, it is probably the best thing we have to stay resilient and generative.

And unlike belief, faith is not something that leads to arguments or war.

That last is among the most ludicrous statements I have ever read on this forum. "Faith" leads to plenty of arguments right here on this forum, and there is a reason for the phrase "religious war." What do you think "jihad" means?

In any case, you plainly haven't answered the question: Where does this "faith" come from? How does one get "faith"?

[Slopeshoulder]

Faith is life giving, and in a world of imperfect information that requires existential commitment and choice, it is probably the best thing we have to stay resilient and generative.

And unlike belief, faith is not something that leads to arguments or war.

That last is among the most ludicrous statements I have ever read on this forum. "Faith" leads to plenty of arguments right here on this forum, and there is a reason for the phrase "religious war." What do you think "jihad" means?

In any case, you plainly haven't answered the question: Where does this "faith" come from? How does one get "faith"?[/quote]

Yes, but it's ludicrous only if one confuses faith with belief, and belief with knowledge. But I think that making those distinctions was at the core of what I've been doing. Many people confuse and collapse the three, and yes, this is exactly what leads to arguments and jihads. I think you may have missed my point, hence the apparent ludicrousness.
But my definition of faith is not to be confused with belief or knowledge. It is purpose-designed to allow and encourage all people to "affirm, align with, and abide in" whatever they like, watever they find worhty of such affirmation, alignment, and abiding, whatever they find most meaningful, whatever helps them satisfy what we identified as the six fundamental human desires: meaning, value, purpose, connection, resilience, and transcendence (however defined) that seem to drive all people in all places and at all times and come before any specific belief systems. This definition works very nicely for a broad and growing cross section of people, from athiests and non-theists, right through more traditional believers, as long as they don't specifically confuse it with knowledge or belief. So far, the only people it doesn't work for (after bouncing it off many and diverse people, from experts ot simple-folk) and the only people we don't work to engage would be angry extremist fundamentalists and angry extremist nihilists. But for the other 90%, it's all good.

If you mean by faith, some sort of supernatural belief in some sort of unverifiable being, I have no idea how to get that, or why, or where it comes from. I neither understand it nor aspire to it. But I think since, say, Kierkegaard, the meaning of faith has evolved from that to somethign more nuanced. My definition tries to capture that evolution in simple terms for a general audience.

To answer your other questions: www.spiritifulliving.com.