Why is faith a virtue?

-Faith is believing what you know ain't so.- Mark Twain

-The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.- Benjamin Franklin

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

― Richard Dawkins

“With each incarnation you agree to forgetting your true state. It is as if a veil dropped into place, separating you from the spirit plane. You frequently ask me why. YOU ARE HERE TO LEARN FAITH. HOW COULD YOU LEARN FAITH IF ALL WAS CLEARLY SEEN? Your growth would be a matter of will power and determination, like a mountain climber with an altimeter that measures how many feet yet to climb. You are not here to practice will, but love and faith. The veil gives you the constant opportunity for such practice.

At times you have glimpses through the veil. A momentary, deep clarity is given as you peer through this fabric that has thinned in places. That glimpse is enough for experience to confirm belief so that faith is not blind faith but is built on a foundation of inner knowing.

Beings at all levels of evolution are on earth. None is better than another. Is the wise adult better than the child or only more mature and experienced? The lessons being learned are varied. Some are learning about materialism, about grasping and generosity. Their concerns may be largely physical. Some of you are older souls and are moving to the lessons of non-judgment, of acceptance of all within the human experience. By acceptance, I do NOT mean a condoning of reactivity and the suffering it may cause, but acceptance that within the human there is both love and fear. They are not opposites but a part of each other. Unconditional love accepts all of that without need to deny anything in the realm of human experience.”

Aaron – Barbara Brodsky

In 1980, a woman, Catherine, was being hypnotized by psychiatrist Dr Brian Weiss as a solution to her uncontrollable anxiety and nightmares. Unexpectedly, while under hypnosis, Catherine began to narrate events from a previous lifetime and convey messages from the "in between lives" state. These are some of the messages she relayed while under hypnosis:

" It was the marriage of one of their daughters of the lady of the house. "Do you see yourself at the wedding?" I asked. She answered quickly, in a loud whisper, "We're not at the wedding. We can only watch the people coming and going. The servants are not allowed."

"What are you feeling?"

"Hatred."

"Why? Do they treat you poorly?"

"Because we are poor," she answered softly, "and we're bonded to them. And we have so little compared to what they have."

"Do you ever get to leave the estate? Or do you live out your life there?"

She answered wistfully. "I live out my life there." I could feel her sadness. Her life was both difficult and hopeless. I progressed her to the day of her death.

"I see a house. I'm lying in bed, lying on the bed. They're giving me something to drink, something warm. It has a minty odor to it. My chest is very heavy. It's difficult to breathe. . . . I have pain in my

chest and my back..." She was breathing rapidly in great pain. After a few minutes of agony, her face softened, and her body relaxed. Her breathing returned to normal. "I have left my body." Her voice was louder and husky. "I see a wonderful light. . . . There are people coming to me. They are coming to help me.... I feel very light.. . ." There was a long pause.

"Do you have any thoughts about the lifetime you just left?"

“I HAD NO FAITH IN THAT LIFETIME." She was calmly evaluating her eighteenth century life. I asked her what she had learned in that lifetime. "I learned about anger and resentment, about harboring your feelings toward people. I also had to learn that I have no control over my life. I want control, but I don't have any. I must have faith in the Masters. They will guide me throughout. But I did not have the faith. I felt like I was doomed from the beginning. I NEVER LOOKED AT THINGS VERY PLEASANTLY. We must have faith ... we must have faith. And I doubt. I choose to doubt instead of believe."

Many Lives Many Masters - Dr Brian Weiss

A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School, Brian L. Weiss M.D. is Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

Faith is not a virtue. Faith is belief without evidence. No one will accept on faith that I own a car I am selling: they will demand evidence (title, registration, &c).

Even though there are lots of people that claim to have faith, I cannot find anyone who will buy my half-interest in the Grand Canyon.

I can show anyone I exist. I can show anyone the Grand Canyon exists.

But on the most mysterious question a human is ever likely to be able to posit (how did we get here), suddenly folk fall back on the "faith" argument (belief without evidence). They are prisoners of ancient stories posed by people who did not understand even the next country over from them, inculcated to believe that way from birth.

They do not understand the psychology of the quote alleged to St Francis Xavier - that the malleable child's mind is wired to accept what an adult tells them is true. (In evolutionary biology terms, the child who ignores the adult's admonition "do not go near the river, there are crocodiles" will not survive to pass on his defective genes.)

They do not seem to have the wonder and the desire to -learn-: they must posit some sort of Creator because they cannot imagine anything else. They cannot marvel at the Universe and see that in its infinity there will never be a time when we can learn all. They have to posit something instead (that they cannot define - try to get three believers to define "God" the same way) in the middle that is infinite and unchanging, because they cannot imagine a Universe that is infinite and ever-changing.

And yet, those who wholeheartedly believe in Jesus have faith. Those who wholeheartedly believe in Allah have faith. Those who wholeheartedly believe in Kali have faith. There is no fundamental difference in their faith, just the window dressing of what they have faith in.

No amount of faith in Jesus as God will convince a Muslim it is so: the Qur'an is very specific that it is not so, and the devout Muslim has absolute faith in the truth of that book.

No amount of faith in Allah will convince a believer in Jesus as God that he is naught but an important prophet sent by God. The Bible is pretty clear on that (and so is Christian dogma).

Neither one can convince with their holy books that the veracity of their faith shows that the Hindu is in error over Kali.

And all of it, every bit, is argument based on no evidence other than the assertion that this Bronze Age text or that one "must" be true.

All Virtues are faces of Love!

Faith is the trust that you place in One you Love!

Faith is the opposite of imaginary, egoic, vain... 'belief'!

Genuine faith requires basic or fundamental knowledge, acquaintance with evidence, as well as heartfelt appreciation of what that evidence indicates. Thus, although it is impossible to have real faith without accurate knowledge and Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen. HEB 11:1

Do you know very many cynical people that you admire? Faith is hope and trust. It is not blind. It is based on a relationship you have with something or someone that you can count and trust. I have faith in my family. I have faith in my future. I have faith in my Heavenly Father. Having faith, having hope, these lead to an optimistic viewpoint of life. It brings peace and joy. It allows us to believe that the future will be ok.

Without faith in anything, a person's life would be miserable, cynical and pessimistic. It is no fun being around those kinds of people.

Because not much of it is available. Some quarters have squeezed it to a penny in value. No faith according to them is real unless it has financial value.

With regard to faith in God, please understand that such faith is based on reason and evidence. It is those who do not have faith in God who constantly misunderstand what that faith is. Not surprising, really. How can you understand something you believe to be nonsense from the outset?

It would be a virtue for those without faith in God to open up their minds to the possibility that their definition of faith was wrong. That would make for a helpful start.

God has provided a threefold 'witness' or testimony to Himself, which any person of low or high education can understand, but grasping the reality of God is not dependent on intelligence - it depends on sincerity. Do you really want to search after God and discover His reality in your life? Do you think that the God who created this universe and all life in it could be duped by insincere people? Why would God let Himself be known to those who had no desire to change their ways to conform to His high and holy standards? He leaves them to their own ways until such times as they reach out to find Him.

I am not going to quote scripture to show this; I am not going to argue for God instigating the Big Bang; I am not going to show the amazing power of the Bible as God's written communication; I am not going to point to the way Jesus Christ revealed the Father to us. If you sincerely want to find God, you will simply pray for help, from God, and that help will come. Of course, making a prayer to God requires faith. (That is a requirement for prayer, that the one praying believes God hears their prayer.)

So you are in a catch 22 situation until you humble yourself and seek God. It is no use quizzing us, who have been given the gift of faith! Faith is given to those asking for it. But YOU have to ask. If you are too proud to ask, thinking that is ridiculous, you will remain ignorant and devoid of God-given faith. The virtue lies in humility, you see. Look at the link if you want to learn more. AiH

It's not. It's only considered a virtue by those trying to justify their irrational beliefs.

' the belief in something like a god without any evidence '

to you ... not to me.

God is evident in His handiwork ...

i see the planets orbiting in a pre-ordered path,

i see beauty in nature ,

i see the waterfall ,

i see moutains, oceans and millions of various lifeforms in it ...

THIS is evidence of God to me.

i SEE, i UNDERSTAND ...

whilst you see but its blank to you ... you make no connection.