Is Faith Useful?

[ElCodeMonkey]

I'm currently reading "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" and the author is discussing the concept of morality and how people simply "feel" certain things are immoral. For example, if someone cuts up an American flag and uses it as rags to clean their toilet. To many, this "feels" very wrong. They will straight up say it is wrong. Morally wrong, even. But trying to ask why, it comes down to "disrespect" for the flag, perhaps, but what does that even mean? The flag has no feelings. The toilet needs cleaned. The flag was otherwise unused, etc, etc. There is no harm here. There is simply a "feeling" that it is wrong. It is very akin to faith. Faith simply "tells" you things. But someone from some remote tribe in an uncivilized part of the world would likely say there is nothing wrong with the flag-cutting and rag-using. Their "feeling" or their "faith" would lead them a different direction. Is this a good comparison to what faith is and is there anything useful to be had with it? Should such things always come back to logic and reasoning such that cutting the flag and using as rags should be 100% acceptable if we can't nail down an exact logical reason not to? Or is there value in these gut-feeling "faith" ideas?

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

Is faith useful?

Why heck yeah!

Look at all them evangelicals that're pro thrice married, porn chick humpin', fake news is anything that makes me look bad, inability to introspect, buttery males, 'cept for 'Vanka's Christians.

Faith is useful as heck when you encounter them incapable of critical analysis.

Faith is useful as all get out, when ya can't show ya speak truth!

[ttruscott]

From the OP:

Is faith useful?

Why heck yeah! Faith is useful as heck when you encounter them incapable of critical analysis. Faith is useful as all get out, when ya can't show ya speak truth!

Faith is an unproven hope...Heb 11:1 You do anything for the future then you are justified by faith in that future occuring. People believe by faith....it is much more than word cover for no proof - it is acting in light of a future when there is no proof that future will come about...and by acting I mean in accordance with the rules and expectations of that future. You 'ant' instead of 'grasshopper' because of faith. You work for a paycheck you may never receive. You attend a doctor because you hope (have faith) he will help, not because you know there is no help. All this working for the future that is unproven is covered by the word faith.

You depend on secular materialism to give you the best life as you can see it - why denigrate me because I too depend on the hope for the best life as I can see it?

So, yes, I think it is very useful or the whole world would not live by it as it does.

Look at all them evangelicals that're pro thrice married, porn chick humpin', fake news is anything that makes me look bad, inability to introspect, buttery males, 'cept for 'Vanka's Christians.

This says nothing against having a strong faith because it is all about a fake or weak faith...and no one knows which, not even you.

SO it is obvious that it is not faith that is the problem here, but faith in what some think is the wrong hope to have in the light of their best guess as to the future al they see it. Am I to drop my faith in a particular future because someone who cannot even formulate the problem correctly urges me to do so? I think not...

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 12 by ttruscott]

People believe by faith....it is much more than word cover for no proof

No. It is precisely that.

- it is acting in light of a future when there is no proof that future will come about...

Which is no different from wishful thinking.