I am curious ...

[TyrianQuill]

 
The meaning and scope of the words I used are as follows:

“Faith is confidence or trust in a person or entity. Depending on the religion, faith is belief in a single god or multiple gods or in the doctrines or teachings of the religion. Informal usage of faith can be quite broad, including trust or belief without proof, and "faith" is often used as a substitute for "hope", "trust" or "belief".

Some critics of faith have argued that faith is opposed to reason. In contrast, some advocates of faith argue that the proper domain of faith concerns questions which cannot be settled by evidence. This is exemplified by attitudes about the future, which (by definition) has not yet occurred. Logical reasoning may proceed from any set of assumptions, positive or negative. In this view, faith is simply a positive assumption.“

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith


And I included in with that “belief system" to cover as broad spectrum as I could with the meaning as follows:

“A belief system is a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs may be religious, philosophical, ideological or a combination of these“.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_system

Growing up I was encouraged to discuss “faith” and “belief systems” respectfully by not directly mentioning specifics; I find this method fends divisiveness and fosters inclusiveness. It is a discipline I try to keep to during discussions.
 

[cutter7]

 
With your faith and belief system in mind, how do you reconcile the many other varied faiths, with yours?

How much (what percentage) do you think faith and belief system effects experiance?
 

my belief teaches me that others make their own choices and their choices are judged by God not me.

MY belief also teaches me that the path is narrow so regardless of what the percentage is , i must make the proper choices myself.

[grammafreddy]

my belief teaches me that others make their own choices and their choices are judged by God not me.

MY belief also teaches me that the path is narrow so regardless of what the percentage is , i must make the proper choices myself.

Someone else may have a different belief with an equally narrow path that has different requirements. What if they are on the right path and you are off wandering around in the bush and not on a path at all as far as their god is concerned?

How does anyone decide what the "proper choices" are? You all have the "proper choices" and you all can't be right. Some even say the numbers that will actually make it to heaven are very limited, so even though you may be making proper choices, what makes you think you have the right number to get past St Peter? Can you earn extra brownie points somehow?

[cliffy1]

my belief teaches me that others make their own choices and their choices are judged by God not me.

MY belief also teaches me that the path is narrow so regardless of what the percentage is , i must make the proper choices myself.

Someone else may have a different belief with an equally narrow path that has different requirements. What if they are on the right path and you are off wandering around in the bush and not on a path at all as far as their god is concerned?

How does anyone decide what the "proper choices" are? You all have the "proper choices" and you all can't be right. Some even say the numbers that will actually make it to heaven are very limited, so even though you may be making proper choices, what makes you think you have the right number to get past St Peter? Can you earn extra brownie points somehow?

What I interpret the narrow path to be is every persons own path. The religious path is a very broad path. The Christians alone, today, number well over a billion. That is pretty damn broad. Muslims about the same. In fact that path is so broad, I would hazard a guess that the flat earth theory comes from it. Nobody who chooses to make the journey (life) is on the wrong path. Those who think their is the only path are delusional at best and dangerous at worst. It is a colossal ego trip and any shrink will tell you that an ego trip is over compensation for "tiny dick syndrome".

[fluffy]

How does anyone decide what the "proper choices" are? You all have the "proper choices" and you all can't be right.

Interesting topic. I think that whatever the source we all have a sense of "right and wrong" tucked away inside somewhere, but a close inspection of the actual nature of those rights and wrongs may not be the same for all of us. It gets really interesting when you start looking at personal discipline and our personal track records when it comes to "doing the right thing" even in the face of things like peer pressure or an easier way out, and whether or not we are able to see when we are employing "intellectual acrobatics" to justify doing something which we know in our hearts is wrong.

[5VP]

The religious path is a very broad path. The Christians alone, today, number well over a billion. That is pretty damn broad. Muslims about the same. In fact that path is so broad, I would hazard a guess that the flat earth theory comes from it. Nobody who chooses to make the journey (life) is on the wrong path. Those who think their is the only path are delusional at best and dangerous at worst.

In the book of Exodus Moses describes the arc and roundness of the earth after he was shown these things by God.

This was thousands of years before science proved these statements to be true in the face of the flat earth ramblings of the early christian churches.

This, to me, illustrates how far off track mankind has gotten from the true words of God and his ancient witnesses. The truth was there the whole time yet somehow religions chose to corrupt this for it's own power tripping ends.

To now take a 21st century perspective and apply it to the ancient past is not how we will discover our unique place with god and all the diverse faiths need to sit down and figure out the why's and where's of the actual validity of their particular belief structure as it relates to what the real message is.

To do this, adherents need to individually go into "the wilderness" away from the relentless dogma.

[cliffy1]

In the book of Exodus Moses describes the arc and roundness of the earth after he was shown these things by God.

This was thousands of years before science proved these statements to be true in the face of the flat earth ramblings of the early christian churches.

This, to me, illustrates how far off track mankind has gotten from the true words of God and his ancient witnesses. The truth was there the whole time yet somehow religions chose to corrupt this for it's own power tripping ends.

To now take a 21st century perspective and apply it to the ancient past is not how we will discover our unique place with god and all the diverse faiths need to sit down and figure out the why's and where's of the actual validity of their particular belief structure as it relates to what the real message is.

To do this, adherents need to individually go into "the wilderness" away from the relentless dogma.

This is a discussion I am having with a Christian on another forum. There is a reason Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights to pray, meditate and wrestle with his personal demons. It is required of anybody who is on a spiritual path. Thinking that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth can be found in an ancient book is folly. There is only one way and that is to go to the source, make your personal connection with your creator. The truth is earned not handed to you on a silver platter as so evangelicals preach.

I view the bible as a guide book (one of many). It is a finger pointing the way. Most people stop and suck on it thinking that they can gain some spiritual nourishment from it instead of going off in the direction it is pointing.