Does faith imply doubt?

[Wootah]

If you say you have faith in something doesn't that necessarily imply doubt? Isn't the dogmatic position no faith?

[Atef]

A butcher and butcher's shop is real, so you have to have confidence that the meat you are getting is good---and meets the USDA requirements for transmission of food approved for human consumption.

Religion is mythical--and requires blind faith in a god or religious character, that outside the Bible has no credible anthropological evidence that validates, it or said characters existence.

That is far beyond faith in a butcher.

[2ndRateMind]

I think faith is distinguished from knowledge, in that the things we have knowledge of are objectively justified; anyone may perform the same experiment at any time and, if they are reasonable, will come to the same conclusion.

Whereas faith is only ever subjectively justified, so you cannot pray my prayer and have it answered. Only I can pray my prayer, and only I can ever receive its answer. So, with faith, there is always room for doubt; maybe it was coincidence, maybe I am mentally ill, maybe I am simply credulous, etc.

All I know is, when I stop believing, coincidences stop happening. So, all the proof of faith is subjective, which means that though it may persuade me, there is no reason why it should persuade anyone else.

Best wishes, 2RM

[marco]

All I know is, when I stop believing, coincidences stop happening.

I can empathise with this. Coincidences are devilish things when they occur in answer to a question. They may be related to some law that links every atom in the universe, something like the shake of a butterfly's wings affecting the cosmos. But of course if heaven uses coincidences as its currency, it is a currency very easily devalued. Christ may well have praised credulity, but as rational beings we should not endorse his praise.

[ThePainefulTruth]

If you say you have faith in something doesn't that necessarily imply doubt? Isn't the dogmatic position no faith?

There's the blind (unreasoned) faith of the revealed religions, or there's reasoned faith. A ship without reason at the controls will go off course and eventually become lost. A ship with out faith guided by reason has no motivation and is dead in the water. In either case there will be circumstances beyond our control, so there is always reason to doubt whether we'll even make it to the end of the day, but we have reasoned faith that it is likely.