Message #703

[AndyHB]

If a person has faith in something, it's reasonable to point out that they believe it exists. Well.. why? What factors, to begin with, make them believe that the thing exists to have faith in?

Tabba, I think the problem is that much of the evidence is personal experience, which can't be scientifically proven, while other evidence is so abstract as to be impossible to pin down concretely.

For instance, some years ago I shared that my ankle had been healed following prayer.  Now, I didn't have medical evidence to back this up - no before and after X-ray or medical report, but I know that after some 20 years of limited range of mobility in the ankle following an accident, that mobility became normal again following the prayer - and others in my family, such as my wife, were able to confirm this; and it remains normal to this day, 15 years later.

Equally, there are issues that science not only doesn't answer, but has tried to answer without success which indicate that there is something outside of purely scientific/biological evolution at work in our world.  For instance, just why do X and Y love each other?  We're constantly being told that we have to be compatible with a partner, that we have to share interests, etc. for a relationship to survive - yet we can all think of couples who not only survive but actively thrive despite having totally diverse interests and activities.