I have faith that the sun will come up tomorrow, but it is based on years of previous experience coupled with my hearing no reports that a meteor is heading our way or that the sun is going to explode in the next 24 hours.
Blind faith would be believing that the sun is going to disappear tomorrow because someone’s interpretation of an ancient text says so, even though there is no history that previous predictions have come through, and even though this prediction goes against known scientific principles.
If you have a different definition of blind faith, feel free to tell us about it. Shit, or get off the pot.
It is? Can you provide an example? I don’t know of any religious people who consider their faith “blind.” Quite the opposite.
Even if I’m mistaken - and I’m not granting that - it doesn’t mean my faith is blind; just that it’s based on a misunderstanding of the facts. But since you can’t know what my personal observations have been, you can’t be in a position to judge the basis for my faith.
So faith is synonymous with an application of the knowledge of cause and effect?
Not exactly what I said.
How about this for a definition of blind faith- A strong belief in something with no evidence and sometimes a strong belief in something even with evidence against it.
He doesn’t need to redefine it. You’ve narrowed it to such a fine point that it would surprising that somebody argued that blind faith is admirable.
The fact is that there are situations where blind faith can benefit a person and give them strength. I am not sure I would call this trait in all such situations admirable. If, like in Lobohan’s example it’s over the death of a child, then it’s a decent placebo. Which is fine but not admirable.
There are plenty of situations where a person cannot possibly acquire the detailed information they need to make what is mistaken for a rational judgement, where the calculation of the odds is humanly impossible. In those situations, blind faith that the outcome will be beneficial to you is admirable. It helps motivate continuing when a it is just as possible that the entirely emotional decision could be to give up.
If he feels that my definition is faulty, he is more than welcome to correct it, as I’ve said before. Twice.
Such as…?
Lifelong blind faith (i.e. in religion, or that some technobabble doohicky “just works”)? No, it’s terrible. However, blind faith can be useful in limited circumstances, if you’re in a situation where you don’t really have TIME to think and you really DON’T know the situation (say you’re in a firefight in the military, or trapped in a burning building), trusting that somebody you don’t know anything about knows what they’re talking about could save your life.
Band name! :smack: Already taken.
I don’t know if that would be blind faith, though. If your are referring to advice from an unknown voice from Headquarters, then you know that he went through the same system of training that you did, and that previous unseen advisers that gave you decent advice went through the same sort of training the current one did.
I don’t think that’s effective, because it depends on the evaluation of evidence to not be relative, when it most definitely is relative.
Find me a person who believes in God, who also thinks that the evidence shows that there is no god. From the perspective of the believer, evidence supports their belief.
ETA: And, I’m unclear, then, about how you differentiate cause-and-effect comprehension and faith (of the normal, non-blind variety). How is “faith that the sun will rise,” or “faith that when I drop the ball here on Earth, it will fall towards the earth at a predictable rate,” any different than “understanding cause and effect”?
No, your definition is perfectly fine. No one thinks they have blind faith in anything, in the sense that you have defined it, and therefore the thread is pointless.
Do you agree that you have blind faith that God does not exist? Is that faith beneficial to you, or to society?
Regards,
Shodan
If a believer says to me that she has ample evidence for her belief, then the next step would be to present that evidence for evaluation. If I just accepted her word that she has evidence for the existence of a supernatural being, that would be blind faith on my part.
I do not have any sort of “faith”, blind or otherwise, in the existence or nonexistence of supernatural deities, since their existence seems to defy known natural laws and no one was come forth with evidence to their existence. The mere fact that the principles commonly ascribed to the Christian God defy logic means that “blind” faith isn’t even a factor, btw.
Sure. But if you heard her evidence and rejected it, that doesn’t make her faith blind.
I would say that “faith without reason” would be a generally bad thing, I’m not sure how often that actually occurs. However, “blind faith” could also mean to be optimistic which could be a beneficial thing.
Placebo effect.
This feud is interesting, because I have yet to see a definition of blind faith in this thread.
Czarcasm finally gives somewhat of an example of his view of what blind faith might be in post #21, (after this exchange I am quoting), but as of the time that I am posting this, neither of you has actually provided a definition of what you claim to be arguing over.
If the definition is simply believing something with no evidence on the basis of an unreliable source, then I would say that Shodan is mistaken, because there are some people who do engage in that belief.
On the other hand, the number of such people who hold that sort of belief is so small as to render the probability of anyone holding such a belief actually posting to this message board as infinitesimally small.
So, is there an actual definition we can examine?
I believe I gave a definition in post #25.
Dictionary.com says that it is belief without true understanding, perception, or discrimination.
American Heritage Dictionary says that it is belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
Between the two, I think that I prefer the latter over the former.
But you’re not arguing that her faith is blind, are you, just because the evidence that convinces her fails to convince you?