> Which specific Christians > do you refer to when you say they equate faith with feelings?
I shouldn't say that faith is equal to feelings. I should say that faith seems to be a position arrived at by feelings. Most Christians say that logic and reason and empirical observations are not the ways they have come to have faith in Jesus. (Some say "not through reason alone", some would say it's not involved at all. Martin Luther: "Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther ) Now Christians have some jargon terms loaded with two millenia of baggage, which they use in trying to explain faith, or how they came to faith. I've tried to navigate that labyrinth of apologetics and rhetoric. Maybe my sins are an obstacle to my understanding, or maybe there's some other faith-based insult that applies to my failure to receive this communication. So what I have to do is take some parts of what Christians say (the parts that made some sense) and fit it into my understanding of how people decide things or how they reach a conclusion or form a belief. They say it's not a belief formed on the basis of logic or reason or empirical observations. As best I can figure, the only things that people really use as bases for their beliefs are logic or reason, (empiricism would be a subset of reason?), or emotions or feelings about some subject. I agree that logic and reason aren't being relied on too heavily to get Christians to have faith in Jesus. What else is left that can be used as a basis in forming a belief? Emotions or feelings. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "A Civil Religious Debate" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/a-civil-religious-debate?hl=en.
