Faith does not equal knowledge
My husband recently had a status-off on Facebook with an old Christian fundy friend, let’s call her Eve. Many of the points she said made didn’t make much sense, but that’s not what propelled me write. Eve, using her very own special brand of circular logic, did what many Christians do: confused faith with knowledge.
This is what vexes me. The entire concept of having faith, explicitly implies to believe “in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing, that is characteristically held without proof.” Fine enough. All I would like of believers is this: You are free to believe what ever theory pleases you, from Jesus to Zeus to Mithras (as the list can go on forever), as long as you stop calling it “the truth” and stopping telling the nonbelievers “you know” it’s real.
What one feels in his/her heart can be a very powerful pull; I understand that deeply. Many times, I have heard a Christian, such as Eve, start off with faith and belief. Then, somewhere along the winding path, fork toward truth and knowledge. As if to say because I believe, that makes it true. Where else can someone say that without a long white coat being wrapped around him/her and thrown unto padded walls.
I recall a teacher in my early years pointing out how to remember how to spell believe. “Never believe a lie,” she said, while writing on the chalkboard, “beLIEve”. That always stuck with me.
But I digress. Even if no one ever knows the truth about god (or God or gOd), most of the Judea-Christian stories are so far-fetched that I can’t understand how someone could so sternly believe them. However, it is your freedom to believe them whole-heartedly, take these stories with a grain of salt, or toss them all out together. I somewhat understand the desire to use knowledge when you truly want to use faith. It surely is an automatic attempt to place your viewpoint above the other, though in a needlessly arrogant and self-centered sort of way.
Whether its stories, dogma, scripture, or god, there is no truth that believers such as Eve know that nonbelievers refuse to accept. We simply do not believe what you so faithfully feel.
Related posts:
[...] ¿Le gusta leer? created an interesting post today on Faith does not equal knowledgeHere’s a short outlineMy husband recently had a status-off on Facebook with an old Christian fundy friend, let’s call her Eve. Many of the points she said made… [...]
The reason Christian’s refer to the bible as “the truth” is saying that the belief’s of the world are false, and that the bible speaks of what is, was, and what will be.