(no subject)

[novapsyche]

This is why I love Kierkegaard:

Two of his popular ideas are "subjectivity" and the "leap of faith". The leap of faith is his conception of how an individual would believe in God, or how a person would act in love. It is not so much a rational decision, as it is transcending rationality in favour of something more uncanny, that is, faith. As such he thought that to have faith is at the same time to have doubt. So, for example, for one to truly have faith in God, one would also have to doubt that God exists; the doubt is the rational part of a person's thought, without which the faith would have no real substance. Doubt is an essential element of faith, an underpinning. In plain words, to believe or have faith that God exists, without ever having doubted God's existence or goodness, would not be a faith worth having.

Comments

[ex-druid210.livejournal.com]

I am generally certain that (a) God exists, due to things happening which would have otherwise been a billion to one odds. Whether this is the same God that the Jews worshipped is yet another question, requiring evidence of a different nature.

Yet there are times when I even doubt that *I* exist.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

You've been reading Wikipedia? He was just featured last week. I found Kant off of a link in Mr. Kierkegraad's entry.

I believe there is a God created by the beliefs of all the idiots in the world. He's a genocidal maniac who listens to country music and waves an American flag. Looks a lot like G.W., except he's got a beard and bad sunburn on his neck. He's less real than the Easter Bunny or Santa, since a child's love is more pure. I think the Easter Bunny should run for president.

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent line of thinking. I'm going to have to incorporate it into my mental "interesting thoughts" file.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

So maybe I do believe in God, then.

In any case, this (at first glance) seems contradictory to the theory that if people can be talked out of believing in their faith based on one simple fact, then their faith wasn't real to begin with, because their faith wasn't based on actual faith. It was based on their weak desire to be holier than people without faith.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

There is a difference between faith and belief. I think this is what Kierkegaard is getting at.

Questioning one's beliefs can indeed contribute to one's bedrock of faith.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

There is a difference, indeed. I mean to say that some people, who have "faith" in Christ, but act completely unchristian... they feign faith to make themselves feel "holier than [thou]."