coltsfan

What is the deference between faith and religion?

Most Christians use the terms faith and religion interchangeably, but they are vastly deferent things.

"What is your faith"

"Oh, I am Catholic"

This is easier than laying out all the items one takes on the basis of faith, but it is not true unless this person is in total line with the Catholic church's teachings of faith. I am not saying that one must act according to the teachings only believe all Catholic matters of faith. Still, if a person's, especially a catholic person's, behaviors are in too much discord with their beliefs then there would be a lot of guilt.

Your faith consists of your beliefs which can not be substantiated with any objective knowledge. Your religion is your external practice of that faith. Typically there is a lot of consistency between the two, but they are not the same.

Why bring this up? Because, many on this web site assume much about other's faith based on the fact that they identify themselves as Christian. Obvious things that should be assumed when talking to Christians is that they believe Jesus is God and he died for our sins. What heaven is like is anyone's guess, we only get a few glimpses of this in scripture.

I take the bible as a matter of faith. I believe it is the word of God, clumsily written by men. Are there flaws with the written word? Of course. If you want to find flaws with a book that intends to describe so much you will likely succeed. However, the central messages are unmistakable and are the important things that should be taken to heart.

trendkill

Are they?

http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=192

Ellis14

Faith is about the personal beliefs one holds.

Religion is about the outward expression of your faith; i.e.: customs, traditions, lifestyles, the organised collection of people of the same faith.

This is how my RE teacher taught it to me anyway. Faith is internal, religion is external.

(Of course this is religious faith we're talking about. But anyone can have faith in some proposition whether they are religious or not).

coltsfan

I think so,

I would say that in christianity Jesus tells us the most important laws are to "Love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

Jesus does not mix the message up. We do. He says over and over in the gospels that we need to die to our own selfish desires and live for others. If we knew nothing else in the bible and knew and lived the 'Law of Love' we would be all be just fine.

Unfortunately, some christians preach doom and gloom on wrong or unnotewothery messages. I think that the christians that are doing the best job often are the unsung ones, who's message is in their actions not their words.

The Evil One

Most sceptical thinkers use "faith" to describe "belief in the absence of sufficient evidence to support that belief" or somehting similar. Faith is a key ingredient of most religions, in as much as most religions require belief in one or more propositions on the basis of no evidence. For this reason, the word "faith" is also used as a synonym for "religion", as you point out. However, while this is easily understandable in everyday language, in philosophical discussions it can lead to confusion and I would therefore recommend avoiding it.

Starboy

For the religious/faithful the word 'faith' is their Swiss army knife. It is used so often in ambiguous ways that I pretty much ignore it. It is a place holder for the specific feelings of that particular speaker. Might as well use the word blogramith because you will not have much of a clue as to what they are talking about unless you play a game of twenty questions.

Starboy

Godless Wonder

Yep. Same goes for the word "Christian" in the sentence, "I'm a Christian."

trendkill

I think that when one person is talking, and he wants people to understand what he's saying, and the guy talking is omniscient and omnipotent, it's not the other guy's fault if he doesn't get it.

Ellis14

Succinct, straight-forward, and well said. :notworthy