%% ACTUALLY I never thought of it that way/ but I see your points. The Bible is a Jewish written book,[inspired by God] so you thinks its not really fair the Jews wrote ''The Jews are Gods chosen people '' BUT believe it or not, I listen to an Egyptian born -Australian =American teacher- preacher Michael Youseff; he thinks Israel is Gods chosen people + that's their land LOL true Good thing he doesn't hold a grudge on God's proof with drowning ALL the Egyptian Army for not treating Israel right NOT to get confused with hyphens, he's an American now who is a Christian
Well well well, what a remarkable coincidence, a christian who thinks "Israel is Gods chosen people + that's their land." I never woulda guessed that.
I just read a post written by a Elite user and my head is spinning. I was intrigued how they used the works of scholar who said “Jesus was the biggest con artist ever or never existed” to defend their faith in Jesus. Once I wrap my head around that, I will try to answer.
My opinion, Jesus existed, he wasn't a con artist, he was probably genuine and a good influence (except to the scribes and pharasees). But risen from the dead? I don't believe that..... Jesus was God? I don't believe that, other than, all humans are possibly 'sons' of God. The jesus miracles, fairy tales imo, all made up long long after he died.
The Jews are full of bullshit just like all of us, except imo, religous people have more bullshit than average while they justify their stupid shit running through their heads.
You can't rationalise faith. I suppose the closest approach would be ability to rationalise the reasons why people have faith, i.e. why they believe things for which there is no credible physical evidence. But I don't find people like that are worth talking to.
The way I see it, all creatures have faith, but let's just focus on humans atm. Faith is hope, anticipation, expectation, an urge for optimism, a belief even to succeed. It's just a natural thing wired into our DNA. But, and this is the big 'but', the Jewish religion and maybe even christians have hijacked faith and turned it into their own posession, "You must have faith in our God, without faith you can accomplish nothing". "If you don't have faith in jesus you will perish in hell"..... all this sort of nonsense. Creatures and humans have faith, we must have faith to survive and grow. Without faith you will wither, we must have faith, hope, anticipation to take on risk and to explore new things. But to turn faith into some sort of religous requirement, by hijacking the word so they claim ownership to it as if only Jews and christians have faith and its all directed at God, yep, just pure deception and twisting of facts imo.
I think only humans have faith, as this derives from the ability to think in the abstract. So humans use faith to ensure that their gods do not rain fire onto the earth and wipe us all out. Animals cannot conceive of anything which does not exist or has not happened ever yet so they can have no faith.
Mmmmmm, what about a dog at the dining room table expecting to be fed, does it not have faith his master will feed and take care of it? Or a dog taking commands to sit or fetch, does it not have faith the master knows what he's doing ànd so it obeys?
It's not really faith as we know it. Animals have only instinctive and Pavlovian drivers for actions.