# The strongest faith I've ever read of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043 "2016-07-16T13:54:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/1 "2016-07-16T13:54:20Z")
Christians? Phooey! Muslims? No way. Hindus, Buddhists? Thiink again. No, how’s this for a strength of belief? According to the Roman writer Valerius Maximus in _Facta et Dicta Memorabilia_ (sounds like an ancient version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) > [@](#): > > An old custom of the Gauls may be mentioned, which records prove, that they lend to each other sums that are repayable in the next world. Now that’s my kind of religion! “Hey, Vercingetorix, can you lend me 5000 bucks, buddy? I’ll pay you back in Heaven.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/2 "2016-07-16T16:23:41Z")
This is undoubtedly responsible for the financial problems of their modern descendants. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/3 "2016-07-16T17:19:31Z")
That is no more extreme or absolute than one popular religion I’ve heard of, that teaches that there is a Hereafter, but when you get there, it is too late to resolve your debrs/issues. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/4 "2016-07-16T20:52:14Z")
Up to the instant of death, a person can be sorry. At the instant of death, a person is instantly in afterlife. If after life does not exist, why worry what others think? Hummm, What group think that after death there is still time to make restitution, repent, change something? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/5 "2016-07-16T23:29:23Z")
I will gladly pay you in my next life for a hamburger today. I dunno if that exemplifies “faith,” exactly, but it is a nice social convention. Many neo-pagans hold to the “three-fold law,” which is that if you give a gift from the heart, you will be repaid three times over (although the coin may be abstract.) That’s a pleasant social guideline also: be nice to people, because it benefits them and benefits you too. The strongest faith would be no bigger than a mustard seed, but which moves mountains. Mountains are occasionally moved, although my faith is more in dynamite than in the laws of spirituality. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/6 "2016-07-17T16:39:59Z")
Is that really stronger faith than Christian charity? If a Christian tithes or helps the needy, they’re still spending current money, and they’re doing it with only the most vague promise of rewards in the afterlife. Compared to that, expecting repayment of a loan seems like a sure thing. Also, if you look at the ancient Egyptians, they devoted whole percentages of their economic output to public works (pyramids, for example) in the expectation that the Pharaoh would take it all with him to the afterlife. I doubt the Gauls ever loaned as much money as went into building a single pyramid. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/7 "2016-07-17T16:42:24Z")
If you’re looking for a hardcore faith, it’s hard to beat the Four Great Vows of Buddhism: > [@](#): > > Sentient beings are numberless, > I vow to save them. > Desires are inexhaustible, > I vow to put an end to them. > The Dharmas are boundless, > I vow to master them. > The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, > I vow to attain it. Saving all the numberless sentient beings… that’s a pretty high bar. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/8 "2016-07-17T17:04:34Z")
A great many people of all faiths or lack thereof give things to others with no expectation that they’ll be repaid in this world. If anything, it’s more impressive when an atheist does it, without the expectation of any other world at all. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/9 "2016-07-17T22:52:34Z")
No Gauls left to carry on the tradition though …☹ Now if they had of been Greeks I would feel better, because one time I told a Greek lady that I liked her ear rings. The next time I came to her little cafe in Newport News, Va she had a little box to give me with the ear rings in the box. She said it was a Greek custom to give to the person an item that they admired. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/10 "2016-07-17T23:32:54Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > No Gauls left to carry on the tradition though …☹ > > Now if they had of been Greeks I would feel better, because one time I told a Greek lady that I liked her ear rings. > The next time I came to her little cafe in Newport News, Va she had a little box to give me with the ear rings in the box. > > She said it was a Greek custom to give to the person an item that they admired. It’s more than a Greek customs. It is the custom throughout the Middle East. The entire eastern Mediterranean has many cultural customs that the entire region shares, Christians and Muslims alike. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/11 "2016-07-18T02:43:07Z")
Huh. I’d never heard of this before. Here’s the Latin in case anyone wants to double-check: Horum moenia egressis uetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit, quos memoria proditum est pecunias mutuas, quae his apud inferos redderentur, dare, quia persuasum habuerint animas hominum inmortales esse. dicerem stultos, nisi idem bracati sensissent, quod palliatus Pythagoras credidit. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/12 "2016-07-18T03:47:46Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It’s more than a Greek customs. It is the custom throughout the Middle East. The entire eastern Mediterranean has many cultural customs that the entire region shares, Christians and Muslims alike. “Hi, I really like your country…” ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/13 "2016-07-18T05:54:40Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It’s more than a Greek customs. It is the custom throughout the Middle East. The entire eastern Mediterranean has many cultural customs that the entire region shares, Christians and Muslims alike. Hey, I ran into this with an American culture (Indians). You dare not admire something in the house, because they would give it to you. Just hand it right over. I think you are supposed to say no, you couldn’t possibly. Maybe say it three times. I think the “faith” winner has to be Scientologists. Join the Sea Org, sign a billion-year contract. Yes; they don’t just want you for this lifetime, but for all future lifetimes. And yet, apparently people sign it. ---
**Author:** ![dreamregent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@dreamregent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamregent)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strongest-faith-ive-ever-read-of/760043/14 "2016-07-18T06:45:21Z")
One burden of proof or appeal to authority logical fallacy is no stronger than another. Jesus is no holier than Aten was.