Why would God require blind faith?

I haven’t the foggiest. But then, I’m not sure he does…if he is.

Actually, many of the messages (I can’t really see how there’s just one) of Judeo-Christian theology seem quite clear to me. The Mosaic codes are pretty explicit. Say what you will about how oversimplified they are, the teachings of Jesus are certainly accessible even to modern readers nearly two millennia after they were written.

I think what tends to happen is times change and texts really can’t keep up. The Pentateuch, harsh as it is, was forward thinking for its day in giving the weak preference over the strong and concerning itself heavily with mundane issues, like dietary health. But do we really have so much bestiality going on that we need to slay our livestock if one of our fellow goat herders gets frisky? I think not.

As for Jesus, he’s not particularly morally or ethically noxious by modern standards. If some of “His” followers would actually read the damn things and take what he said to heart, rather than using it as a tool to manipulate other jackasses, the world might actually be better than it is now.

Gods are the creation of priests. Priests want the power that results from unquestioning obedience.

He is a jealous god.
He is a vengeful god.
He obviously wants proof of how much people love him and are devoted to him; he is an insecure god.

Or, that idea was invented by religious authorities to keep the masses ignorant. If you have faith then legitimate proof cannot sway you. This perpetuates the power of the church, and it’s wealth.

I’ve never heard God speak from the heavens.

Her voice speaks to my heart.

God doesn’t require blind faith. “And what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God” MIcah 6:8. Just a thought.

I don’t know. I can only assume that blind faith is required because he gave us the choice to chose him or not to. He gave us free will.
If we saw actual physical proof of God would man be living his life as he sees fit or will he simply go to God everyday waiting for him to approve or disapprove of his every move or thought. Then free will goes out the window.
He gives us proof everyday of his existence. Only if we choose not to see it than it was our choice. Hes just not in your face about it.

What about the Cosmic Muffin?

Like Judge Judy always says, “if it doesn’t make sense it’s usually not true”. I’m pretty sure you can apply that to god. Yep, pretty sure.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld

We assume the grinding, crunching, mincing, munching thinking machine that pops and splutters away in our tiny craniums is pre-eminent, it isn’t. unless you’re Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchins of course.

@MissA And what about the Cosmic Pig?

God is a Comic PigMuffin?

He doesn’t. He speaks quite clearly through the Holy Spirit, but you need to be tuned in and paying attention.
I imagine that He doesn’t do the booming voice thing because quite frankly, that would be unsettling.

Haha yeah can you imagine the daily thundering voice from the sky!

Awwh Gawd not again!

Hmm, that brings up another question. I wonder how many people who believe in god, think it is a male human…

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies No, I don’t think God is a Cosmic PigMuffin and that is one of the real problems I find with people who debate the existence of God. They come in with a limited amount of knowledge and understanding: Everything I know about people believing in God involves people believing that God is a Cosmic PigMuffin, believing in a Cosmic PigMuffin is ridiculous and illogical therefor there is no God. But hey, God isn’t a Cosmic PigMuffin, you do understand that there are ways to think about God that are infinitely more complex and nuanced than that, don’t you? And they pretty much say no. I have already decided that if you believe in God you must believe in the Cosmic MuffinPig god, therefore you are a complete idiot.

Because Man wants to see how gullible his fellow human beings really are.

@HTDC None of them. God is, by definition, not human. The closes that you’ll get to that is apotheosis, and that’s the making of a human into a god.

@lillycoyote

I said “Comic”, not “Cosmic”, and yes, I would be a complete idiot to believe in either one of those gawds.

I believe in you. That’s proof enough for me that God exists.

@Nullo So you are saying that most of those who claim to believe in God actually do not, eh?

I feel God speak all the time. I hear him in my friends, in my family, in thunder, in snow, in the achingly beautiful cosmos.

I love watching tv. I enjoy it quite a bit, depending on the program. When a loud, abrasive, commercial comes on I hit the mute button quick as lightening. If it’s a quiet commercial I stop what I’m doing and tune in to hear and identify the message.

I don’t feel God wants blind faith- he just wants us to be quiet for a damn minute and listen. Humans are great talkers but our hearing could use some work.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies that is the very reason I so love this sort of venue. “I said God was a “ComicPigMuffin” not a “CosmicPigMiuffin” you moron. You could at least get that one right” God bless you all. :) I so adore the meaningful nonsense. Let it reign.

Hahahahahaha

I agree with the others who have said that He doesn’t require blind faith. There is plenty of evidence that He exists. Some just try to ascribe that evidence to randomness. That is their right, and I respect that. I also feel sad that they choose to see it that way.

So that we would excercise our belief for him more.Also I believe so that we would look harder therefore putting ourselves more into the solution to look for the answer.

Many people confuse “God” with “religion.” Religion is a human invention and has little enough to do with God. Lillycoyote was spot on, when she said, “God doesn’t require blind faith. ‘And what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.’ MIcah 6:8. Just a thought.”

Jesus said it even better: “The greatest commandment is this, to love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and strength, and the second is like it: love your neighbor at least as much as you love yourself. In these are summed up all the Law and the prophets.” I firmly believe that even TRYING to follow this would change the world.

Faith is the absence of fear.

If religion is man made why trust any of it? You quoted from a religious text and are living by principles expressed in a religion. Uhh…

@tinyfaery The belief is that the bible was words dictated by heaven. Religion over the years has been warped by man and sometimes used for some people personal agenda. Using God as a reason for intollerance and hatred and political gain.

@tinyfaery

WRONG! “Religion” is almost always more form than substance. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27

This is precisely why Jesus was so vehement in his denunciation of the religions leaders of his day. They were legalistic in the extreme, forgetting the true substance of the fantastic news that God had brought, and adding to the burdens of people rather than easing the strain. Sound familiar?

Because it’s all made up.

Assuming that there is a God – my counter question for you would be why wouldn’t he? You are the creator of life, the world and everything in between. Would you divulge your deepest secrets?

Honestly, I’m not suggesting that problems are a good thing or the unknown, but I think life would be way too easy if the deepest secrets were already known. There would be no sense of wonder – there would be no reason to continue the journey. Life is cryptic; no one said it would be easy and no one has every piece to the puzzle. That’s the whole point.

Sorry, there is NO WRONG when speaking about religion. It’s doctrine and dogma can NEVER be proven.

@lillycoyote

If God is a Comic Pig Muppet, do you really want to hear THIS thundering from the clouds every day?

God requires blind faith because if any other kind of faith was asked of his followers, it wouldn’t be found. It seems logical that the only faith that would be asked would be blind.

@Disc2021 Because as a parent who wanted to educate and steer my children in a good direction I would not ask them to rely on text translated from a different old language, or have them figure out who has the real truth. I would want them to be successful and not make it a test. I personally would teach them, and hold out examples for them. Since we are God’s children, why does he make it a mysterious tricky maze? As I said, it makes no sense.

I think humans are the ones that make it “a mysterious tricky maze”, not God.

Just listen to him speak to you in your heart, and through you to your children, and also through them back to you. No games. No tricks… until the television comes on.

A quote from the Rig-Veda:

“Who then knows whence it has arisen,
Whence this emanation hath arisen,
Whether God disposed it, or whether he did not,
Only he who is its overseer in highest heaven knows. Or perhaps he does not know!”

Maybe God doesn’t know what He wants.

@CaptainHarley I am scared; we are agreeing more and more every day!

I am going to act a little stupid here and ask a counter-question that I have yet to see addressed, at least not in a clear manner that makes sense to me;

Who says that God requires blind faith?

Sure, religion often requires blind faith. Many sects fall back on “Because God says so!” and punish those that question their interpretation of God’s Will, but that doesn’t mean that God requires blind faith. It just means that some schmuck in clerical garb is on a power trip!

Personally, I am a devout Agnostic, though one with a theistic bent. I believe in something that, for lack of a better word, could be called “God”. Now, I don’t know that God is a singular being or a pantheon as a collective whole, or something else. What I do believe is that we humans cannot understand his/her/it’s/their nature. And I personally do not feel that it takes blind faith to believe in that.

Put that all together and, if your brain operates anything like mine, the only logical conclusion is that it is possible to believe in God without blind faith.

Of course, I suppose it all depends on what your definition of God is, and your question as asked makes assumptions about the nature of the divine that I find nearly as blasphemous as a Catholic would consider urinating in a font of Holy Water. To assume that you actually know His (?) Will means that you believe yourself to be more-than-human and thus superior to us mere mortals, and I can’t abide by that.

@jerv

Although you’re considerably more cynical than I usually am, I can’t easily disagree with anything in that answer. You’re correct… it IS scary! LMAO!

@jerv There are rational skeptic Christians out there who have found reasons enough. Lee Strobel comes to mind.

@Nullo True, but there are also a lot of wingnuts as well. The trouble is that the rational Christians are generally a quiet lot and thus easily overlooked amidst the plethora of loudmouthed loonies.

I don’t think he does.

And I know that my own faith isn’t blind. It’s very rational based on good arguments.

We don’t have the original bible texts (most bible experts agree on this). We have no way of knowing what books should have been in the bible and which ones shouldn’t have been. The bible was most likely altered by “religious” men over the years who were trying to push their religious agenda. God allows man to do everything in our own free will (even destroy ourselves and our own planet if it came to that) because man wouldn’t want it any other way. There are many parables in the bible as well with many different denominations that choose how they are translated.

From my own experiences and those of other people’s ndes I’ve read about I don’t believe there is a “heaven up in the sky” or a “hell in the center of the earth” with “eternal punishment” for “nonbelievers” or “sinners”. I believe there are different dimensions with some that are pleasant and some that are not so pleasant but it is your own behavior while alive, not beliefs or faith that determine to where your soul travels after physical death. Many atheists will have a better afterlife experience when they pass (if they were decent and put others before themselves) than many religious people who believed with faith that “Jesus died for my sins” but didn’t follow the real message of Jesus to put others before ourselves.

The bible clearly says that the “kingdom of god is within you”, I believe god does try to reach us by several forms of communication such as dreams, ndes and other means. I believe we are not meant to know everything and there maybe a very good reason for it. You can only try to be a decent person, that is the one thing we can control about ourselves regardless of your beliefs/non-beliefs.

“By their works shall you know them.” and “Faith without works is dead.” It’s faith AND works: “I will show you my faith BY my works.”

Even Western faiths value “Blind Faith” to very different extents.

In Judaism, faith is not demanded. Obedience to Jewish Law is valued far above faith. Salvation does not require faith at all! It is considered a nice bonus if it works out that way for you that you belief too.

@Jabe73 I think that the heart of the problem here is that many people have their own take on what the Bible clearly says.

@Dr_Lawrence Now you know why I could never be Jewish!

@jerv Why? Aside from the whole Jesus is the messiah thing, why couldn’t you be Jewish? What specific part of @Dr_Lawrence statement is the problem? Follow Jewish law and you can believe and have faith all you want in Judaism.

@JLeslie I have a problem with obedience. Needless to say, the Navy was a bit rough for me.

@jerv Oh, I see. Then you can be a reformed Jew and you don’t have to follow anything really. LOL. Thanks for clarifying :).

You should contact a qualified pastor or seminary professor in the reformed tradition who can explain this to you. This question is too personal and has to great a consequence.

Holy books have to be complemented by criticial thinking. Even the Hebrew Bible tells us so:

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.

Because he wants to remain unseen, untouched, undiluted.
If he comes in the form of human being, we would tear him apart.
Just like we did to Jesus and hanged him on the cross.