Our group discussion was about Augustine and whether or not you can grow faith without doubt.
Factual:
Augustine found belief in the neoplatonism god? True/False
Answer: False
Discussion Question: Can you grow in faith without doubt?
In my opinion I believe that many people express faith without doubt, however, this belief does not contribute or give just to the belief. People who display faith without considering the other side remind me of contempt herds in the fields, happy enough but led to slaughter easily. By doubting, I believe that people grow stronger in faith.
ReplyDeleteDoubt to me is the most useful tool human beings have. There is no mandate on the individual to blindly believe something. Many religious people today, however, suffer from a lack of doubt. In our society, to not diligently follow our parent's religion from our toddler years to death is seen as heretical, almost. The problem stems in part from the lack of understanding the reasoning behind disbelief. If I were to walk into a room today and let it be known that I am not a christian, an epidemic onslaught of accusations would likely follow. The reason being people of faith tie the absence of faith with a lack of morality, when in fact the opposite can be true. What doubting has taught me is that after reasonable contemplation, no one is required to come to the same conclusions about the origins of life and questions of morality. But more importantly, for any non-doubter what they should take from that is that it is not unreasonable to doubt a religion. Doubt is a path to discover, not a method of rebellion. If through doubting your conclusions are the same, hasn't doubt only strengthened your faith, not crushed it?
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