faith is an ambiguous word, and i use it to mean different things. in that case, i was using faith to refer to a sort of self-evident belief, a belief that is not contingent on others and which all others rely on.

Now we're getting somewhere, very thoughtful question.

My faith is very strong.

I have faith in people, in tangibility and in acceptance of uncertainty.

I am so "blessed" by the people and things in my life I have no need for any promise of an afterlife or eternal life etc.

I have faith in what I can see, touch, hear, feel, taste and smell because it's all that I perceive to know and it's all I can count on. I don't have the need or desire to dwell or rely on the unknown even though I seek the answers tirelessly.

I accept not knowing until I know. I don't say there is no God, I just say I don't know and either do you. I don't care who believes in god and who doesn't. Treat people the way you wish to be treated because again...my faith is in people because they're all I have and all I know.

typical cliche statement that is wrong.

In that case, as an atheist I would say I do not have faith. I have beliefs, but not faith. For instance I believe that that gravity exists because all forms of evidence point to it. However, I do not believe in anything for which there is no evidence.

Sometimes I think that the "good" things that people do because of religion are just attempts at fixing the very problems that religion itself caused.


Does anyone really understand anything?

(Rhetorical question)

Churches typically go to third world countries to do "missionary" work and clothe the homeless. They don't go and heal wounded soldiers fighting in holy wars or beaten homosexuals.

scientists know that particles are attracted to one another, but they don't know why.
is this all it takes to prove something?
knowing that it happens but not knowing why?

If something is dead I don't need to know why it died to understand that it happens to be dead.

Also, isn't gravity the "why" in that situation? Or perhaps mass? Objects are attracted and gravitate torward objects with more mass.

What you're describing to me sounds like a sort of aestheticism, and is similar to my own philosophy of life. The beauty of life is in the diversity of experiences, in reliving the same events in different settings and with new twists. Thinking about the "deep" questions of life is just part of that dialogue with life, its not about the answers but about the voyage. Absolutely.

However, murder is one of those experiences. Maybe you haven't really lived life until you've felt what it is to take someone else's. That's a scary thought, but people must be joining the army for some reason. How does a philosophy of embracing life teach moderation? It has to come from the elevation of quantity over quality... but where does that come from? Aristotle, I guess...

gravity is a theory that presupposes itself.
the theroy states that every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force pointing along the line intersecting both points. The force is proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the point masses.


scientists don't know why this occurs.