How can smart educated people faith believe?

I don't think they do.

Why are some people so reliant on "evidence" when that evidence or those "facts" change all the time. Hey the earth is flat, no wait its not. Sorry. Hey the human species originated in Africa, oh no wait there are now remains twice as old in Israel. You make people who rely on faith for God (as if anything could prove or disprove him) to look ignorant, lazy and pathetic. The fact is that we understand in what ways we are limited. Some things can be known factually, some things we will only EVER know as a theory (no matter how pissed you get when we point that out) and some things are utterly un-provable. So my point is, why cant you appreciate that there is value in topics under each category, instead of just relying on the one you suppose has been proved...when we know it will just change in a few years anyway.

would not considered one of those cynicism inevitably lead you to question your very own senses? ultimately, the priority of the shortcoming of objective expertise potential you should be being tricked via the comparable God you deride. you should be trapped in a faux fact with all your information and sensory archives as basically a projection. How do you be conscious of your not? Or do you in simple terms have self belief which you adventure a "authentic fact"? somewhat, as a "smart, knowledgeable person" you may desire to be conscious of that sound exists which you do not pay attention (low frequency) and that easy exists which you won't be able to be certain (ultraviolet, infrared) and yet you're so confident of your very own concept which you may argue against believing in something that, for others, fills the gaps of expertise that no-one could be fool hearty sufficient to deny. for many folk, being open-minded is a distinctive function.

Your first statement is not the Christian view of faith. There is evidence. There is a written record. I realize you don't recognize it as legitimate, but it is evidence. There is other "evidence" that you reject from logic, you reject that too. Intelligent Design is in my opinion very reasonable evidence. You reject that. So there is evidence you just reject it.

In the Bible faith is believing what God has promised is true. It goes back to Abraham in Gen. 15.

It was Soren Kierkegaard who said faith is a leap in the dark. The Bible says we need faith like a child. What is that? When my daughter was young she would climb up several steps and then jump into my arms. She did that until she was 10 or so. Why? She believed I'd catch her? Was there evidence? Yes there was. She's 15 now and I doubt she'd do it, but I would do my best to catch her.

Yes, faith "can" be defined that way. But actually faith is the acceptance of that which I have not yet seen nor experienced, based on the evidence of that which I have seen or experienced, and the reliability of the One who revealed it.

So my question is, how can a smart, educated, thoughtful person believe that millions of intelligent people believe in something for which there is no evidence? If a thousand people told me they had met Jim Smith, I would draw the only possible rational conclusion - that Jim Smith must exist! It would be totally irrational of me to conclude that Jim Smith cannot exist because I have not personally met him, even though a thousand intelligent people do claim to have met him. The rational response would be, "they must know something I don't know".

Many strongly held scientific beliefs have proved to be wrong. Are we to conclude that all scientific beliefs are wrong or not based on reason? Why view religious beliefs any differently? The Bible itself says at Romans 12:1 that in order for our worship to be “acceptable to God,” it must be “a sacred service with our power of reason.” This is not blind faith or credulity but faith based on solid knowledge and sound reason.

A basic requirement for faith is accurate knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4) The Bible warns against putting faith in every word and advises us to “make sure of all things”. (Proverbs 14:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:21)

It is interesting how the person who ridicules faith usually has faith in tried and trusted friends. Even a scientist has faith in the principles of his branch of science. He bases new experiments on past discoveries and looks for new discoveries on the basis of things already established as true. It is no different from a farmer preparing his soil and seed and expecting as in previous years that with moisture and sunshine the seeds will sprout.

Have you read the entire Bible? Do you need help to understand it? Once you come to an accurate knowledge of the Bible, you will see that the kind of faith it teaches is compatible with reason. The Bible encourages us to “test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God.” If you do this, you will be able to make a defense before everyone that demands of you A REASON FOR THE HOPE IN YOU as expressed at 1 Peter 3:15.

In the January 2011 Awake magazine on page 28, there is a wonderful but brief article that answers the question, “Are Faith and Reason Compatible?” Any Jehovah’s Witness would be glad to give you a copy or visit watchtower.org.

We are physical and spiritual beings. Some people are not in touch with spiritual things, otherwise known as being 'spiritually blind.' When God opens your eyes to the spiritual reality all around us, then you will understand. Until that happens, none of us can discern the spiritual or believe.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." - I Corinthians 2:14

The Bible describes faith this way: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

"Things not seen" - interesting. Especially considering our eyes can only perceive a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

So a truly 'educated' person is a humble one who understands that he doesn't know all there is to know, nor has he even come close.

So there is no evidence for the existence of God? Not at all? I consider myself to be smart and educated, and I believe, so that makes me lazy or scared?

What evidence do you have that there is no God? Evolution? Big bang? But something cannot happen without something to set it in motion, can it? And why does evolution have to contradict truth? In the words of Stephen Hawking, "Science cannot prove that God doesn't exist."

So why shouldn't I? If I don't believe and He doesn't, I die and I'm dead. No more. If I believe and He doesn't, I'm dead. No more. Am I going to be punished for believing if God doesn't really exist? And what if He does? If I believe correctly, I gain eternal life, beatific vision, with God. If I don't believe and He does, I'll have earned eternal damnation.

I'd beg to differ that someone who is smart and educated who is wise would believe in God, for knowledge comes from science, while wisdom come from philosophy.

I believe humans have natural rights, human rights. There is no evidence to suggest this. In fact, it's just blatantly wrong. Nature doesn't give anyone rights. It doesn't have the capacity to do or care about it.

We all have our assumptions. The only difference is the values that inform those assumptions (faith or reason, science or religion, other things).

At the end of the day, we're all just making stuff up and trying to get through a life that evolution has not prepared us to be conscious of its end. Fear was a legitimate survival instinct... but because we can think of the future and are self-aware, fear becomes a burden because we fear whose dangers are not immediate or real (we fear sickness, death, death of loved ones, danger, unknowns, differences etc).

1) I am not lazy, I spend 14 to 18 hours studying the Bible and translating to 5 languages - altogther I need to handle 8 languages for doing this.

2) I am not scared, I have confidence in God

3) You can call me stupid if you want, but my academic and career records prove otherwise.

4) If you think you are the only smart person it is your conceit. Sir Isaac Newton, by your definition was stupid!

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I think that belief is a bit like love:

They once felt for it and stick with it.

Another person could see all the faults of someone but the person in love doesnt.