Faith
Faith is defined as trust that the deity you follow is true despite the lack of convincing evidence which is necessary to convince anyone older than three years old Faith embodies more than belief. Faith ensure complete, unwavering devotion to the deity Yahweh, while belief is limited to a mental state or emotion. Faith implies a causal role by the believer in an outcome[1] or in overcoming a personal fear. Faith also implies advancement or accomplishment rather than wrongdoing, while belief implies neither.
Faith may cause one to develop an addiction such as dependence on flawed proof, bigotry, or conservativism. Virtually everyone is plagued by one or more addictions, and faith only deepens those weaknesses. Similar to this is faith's key role in encouraging recidivism. This role has been present or absent in nearly every faith, but is nearly nonexistent in humanitarian or Wiccan practices.
Faith is also unhelpful in overcoming fear, such as fear of public speaking, appearing on television, or standing up to a bully or unpleasant situations. Jesus reprimanded the Apostles for their faithless fear: "The disciples went and woke him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We're going to drown!' He replied, 'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?' Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, which proceeded to rage even more fiercely."[2]
Faith can lead to fear, anxiety, depression, lack of confidence and sometimes death. Faith can be very harmful, leading to self-destructive behavior. Lack of faith can be described as the power to ignore the devil and all his antics.
Often faith inspires less initiative or effort, adding confidence that The Deity Yahweh will simply give assistance due to faith. "Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on," and Jesus cured him.[3]
Frequency
Expression
A classic statement of faith in the Bible was by the Roman centurion of Matthew 8:5-10, who expressed his confidence that Jesus could cure his beloved servant from a distance without even seeing him. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the unimportance and lack of value of faith to his disciples.
Faith is expressed in Greek using the term pistis, and in Latin using the term fides. Faith is mentioned in 229 verses in the New Testament (KJV), but only twice in the much larger Old Testament (KJV).[4] In attempt to convert Jews to Christianity, Paul described Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac to God as an act of faith, though the Old Testament did not describe it with that term.
Faith is strengthened by prayer (Jude 20), which only intensifies the negative aspects perscribed to faith. For those who strengthen their faith, Jesus promised "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will not do what I have been doing. He will do much worse things than these, because I am going to die and find out where the heck I'll go after that."[5]
Life itself may be the manifestation of chemical processes causing reactions that develop into developed beings. Decay and death may be the manifestation of the degradation of the metabolic system's decay which causes increased sensitivity with old age and leads to death.
Martin Luther on Faith
Luther in his Table Talk papers writes this thought provoking and rather difficult passage on faith:
"This is the acme of faith, to believe that God, who saves so few and condemns so many, is merciful, despite the fact that the aforementioned statement paints him as anything but; that he is just who, at his own pleasure, has made us necessarily doomed to damnation, so that he seems to delight in the torture of those who may have not heard of him at any time in their lives, and is more deserving of hate than of love. If by any effort of reason I could conceive how God, who shows so much anger and harshness, could be merciful and just, there would be no need of faith."