How come Republicans hide being gay?

[LittleBeast]

The very definition of faith is belief without proof.

Faith - noun A belief in the value, truth, or trustworthiness of someone or something; belief and trust in God, the Scriptures, or other religious writings; a system of religious beliefs.
Belief - noun Something that is trusted or believed.
Believe - verb To accept as true or real; to hold onto religious beliefs.
(Webster's Dictionary New Revised and Expanded Edition)
I would never ever believe or have faith in something without proof. I did not come to the conclusion that the original Hebrew and Greek words of the Bible were indeed inspired by the Creator Himself lightly. I do not have a blind faith or a faith "just because that is what my parents believed." I intentionally took religion classes at Rice University with atheist teachers because I wanted to know for sure, I wanted my faith to be challenged, I wanted to have huge questions, because if there really is a God out there that has been making Himself known to His creation in many ways He would be big enough to answer these questions, I wanted to have "A belief in the value, truth, or trustworthiness of someone or something". I wanted to have a real faith, real beliefs as they are defined. Not blind faith as you describe that is simply stupid to run around as a zombie or sponge soaking up the latest new thing. So no I do not have the faith you describe at all.

I think you completely missed the point. The reason he knows that no one knows the "truth" is because you can not know something that is improvable. So you can have faith, you can believe, but you can not know. You might even be right in your faith, but you can't prove it so you can't know you are right.

Just because you or someone else views something as "improvable" does not mean that it is indeed the case. We all have varying degrees of approval for many things we hear about or see or experience as real, do we not?

So I see why you assume I missed the point and as I am reading back over what I said I myself see my folly there, because it is a complex issue and I did not do a good job of explaining myself I am sorry, but I do see your point.

My point is just because YOU have labeled something as "improvable for yourself" does not mean that it is indeed improvable unless you yourself can see the entire issue and proclaim it as unknowable by all mankind. But conversely it also means that by me saying that it is provable and has been proven to me does not mean or infer that it is provable to you or anyone else, but solely means that it is proven to me and I have faith and belief not blindly, but I do believe and trust as if it were true because it has been proven to me. Just because someone else labels my faith unknowable does not discount my faith to whatever they think, unless they have perfect knowledge of the subject and indeed then they themselves could declare it as unknowable or not.

My faith has been proven to me, and this was a very long hard fought battle believe me. I do not believe blindly, I choose to believe the Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eye witnesses during the lifetime of other eye witnesses, and they report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies claiming that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. I do see how it seemed like I didn't know what you two meant I am sorry for the confusion guys. I do respect your points of view, but they just seem a little specific and exclusive to declare to every human that has ever lived that they cannot know something for sure, but they have to accept your view that you can never know for sure. I mean you are basically telling me I am wrong and your view is the only obvious one. I am not trying to say the same thing back to you, I do understand what you are trying to say, but in order to say that you would have to prove that it is not knowable or my personal preference is "I don't know what is provable/true/trustworthy in your life, but God has proven over and over again that He is the only faithful One in my life and I cannot convince you of this, but I know for sure for me." Once again guys I respect you and your views please respect mine, I am not saying that you have not, just reminding you that I write all these things innocently just trying to give my point of view not trying to persuade you or tell you that you are wring, but to just give my perspective. Your VX brother, Ryan

[VX crazy]

I think that was very well said Ryan!

[IndianaVX]

ive got to agree with vx crazy, and i agree with what ryan has been saying too, i just cant keep up

[IndianaVX]

i too am just posting my belief, opinion, and not trying to offend, or preach.

some may ask where God is in all this, or bad things happening to good people, etc. we all acnowlege that everyone has free will. and it says that in the bible also. yes, sometimes awful things happen, to one, or hundreds....
i tend to believe that no matter what could possibly be going on in my life, that God is always near, and working all things out for my good. it may not seem like it at the time i might be going thru things, but when i look back on things, I can see where he was guiding me all the way. (which, like ryan, the trials in my life have brought me my faith)
and yes, it is easy for some to say, well its nice that things "worked out"...........
NOW, i say this, not looking for sympathy, pity, etc, but some of the trials i have been thru, are not things that just "work out"
but in those times, i needed something.......or someone.
everyone knows quotes from the bible like, " i will give you rest" or "be still, and know that i am God" words to cling to, so i took him up on it. and he has made good on the promises he made. so i believe God is where you want him to be, if you want him to be involved in your situation, he will be there.
i am terrible at typing my thoughts, and i hope i dont come off as preaching either, i too am just telling you MY belief.

david

[WyrreJ]

Faith - noun A belief in the value, truth, or trustworthiness of someone or something; belief and trust in God, the Scriptures, or other religious writings; a system of religious beliefs.
Belief - noun Something that is trusted or believed.
Believe - verb To accept as true or real; to hold onto religious beliefs.
(Webster's Dictionary New Revised and Expanded Edition)

Are you trying to quote the dictionary to disprove my assertion that faith means belief in the unprovable?
I sure hope not because I can quote the complete Merriam-Webster definition if need be.

By the way any dictionary that is simply "Webster's" and not "Merriam-Webster" is inauthentic and not to be trusted, the real webster company made an error and only trademarked the full name - "Merriam Webster." So every charlatan and his brother with a knock-off dictionary calls it "Webster's" because there is no trademark preventing them from doing so and thus no reason at all do any sort of quality control. The only legitimate "Webster's" dictionaries are the ones with the full "Merriam-Webster" in the title.

Just because you or someone else views something as "improvable" does not mean that it is indeed the case. We all have varying degrees of approval for many things we hear about or see or experience as real, do we not?

What is 'approval' supposed to mean? Proof is a very simple concept, a test for which the results are falsifiable. If a test can not possibly disprove something, then it is not falsifiable. For example - the police find finger prints on a gun, they also have a suspect in custody. A test that compares the suspect's prints with the prints on the gun is falsifiable, if they match then they are his prints, if they do not match they are not his prints.

There is no test that could possibly disprove the existence of God. Just as there is no test that could possibly disprove the existence of Vishnu and Kali, Ahura Mazda, Shangdi, Chukwu, Mawu-Lisa, Tarvos Trigaranus or Amaterasu to name just a few.

A test without the possibility of failure is no test at all.

My faith has been proven to me,

Do not confuse being convinced with proof.

Perhaps you chose not to adhere to a strong formal definition of proof. That's your prerogative. But to do so is extremely solipsistic.

In my opinion if we were perfect robots that had no choice but to do good and accept God that would not glorify God at all

Total cop out. He makes us imperfect so that we can choose to strive for perfection but meanwhile we've got good questions that we don't deserve the answer to through no fault of our own? That's just another variation on do as I say, not as I do.

My favorite story from sunday school was the (almost) sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. Except the version taught in sunday school is wrong. That version says God was testing Abraham's faith, to see if it was strong enough that he would murder his own son because God told him to. The version that I think is correct is that Abraham was testing God. No just God would actually desire that a man sacrifice his own child. If God had let Abraham kill Isaac, then that would have been proof that God did not deserve Abraham's faith.

It worked out pretty good for Abraham, but thousands of people across the rest of the world suffers the fate of a murdered Isaac on a daily basis.