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Reason and Faith: Difference between revisions
→How does faith start?
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Faith always starts with information. It starts with thinking. | Faith always starts with information. It starts with thinking. | ||
How do you develop enough faith in somebody to marry them? What do you say? | How do you develop your faith? You develop your faith through thinking, through reasoning it out, through getting the evidence. | ||
Well, I suppose there are some fools who do this. You look at her, and you say, | |||
There are people who have done that. It’s a sad thing, and that’s not a joke. The fact is, everybody knows you do need faith in order to marry somebody, and the stupidest thing in the world is to try to build your faith by closing your mind to the facts. The smart thing is to develop your faith, and that’s the natural way to develop your faith, by thinking. How do you decide whether you’re going to have minor surgery? You get up enough faith, and you do this. | How do you develop faith in a doctor? How do you develop enough faith in somebody to marry them? What do you say? | ||
You say, | |||
Well, I suppose there are some fools who do this. You look at her, and you say, “''She is gorgeous. I don’t want to know anything else about her. I don’t want to talk to people about what kind of person she is. I don’t want to spend time with her to find out just really what kind of character she has. I don’t want to know the facts. I don’t want to know the facts. I believe she is the woman for me.''” | |||
There are people who have done that. It’s a sad thing, and that’s not a joke. The fact is, everybody knows you do need faith in order to marry somebody, and the stupidest thing in the world is to try to build your faith by closing your mind to the facts. | |||
The smart thing is to develop your faith, and that’s the natural way to develop your faith, by thinking. How do you decide whether you’re going to have minor surgery? You get up enough faith, and you do this. | |||
You say, “''I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything about it. I don’t want to know why I need it. I don’t want to know what the effects are. I don’t want to know the side effects. I don’t want to know that. I just want to do it.''” | |||
Why do you think Paul says we walk by faith, not by sight? He means as you walk by what you know, you stick with what the truth is, and you tell your moods and your feelings and your fears where to get off. That’s faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We go on what we know, not by what we see, not on what the appearances are, not on what the feeling is, not on how it feels at this moment. We walk by faith. We know. | Why do you think Paul says we walk by faith, not by sight? He means as you walk by what you know, you stick with what the truth is, and you tell your moods and your feelings and your fears where to get off. That’s faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We go on what we know, not by what we see, not on what the appearances are, not on what the feeling is, not on how it feels at this moment. We walk by faith. We know. | ||
Three people all say, “Do not fall in love with that guy. He will break your heart.” You believe those people, and they’ve never let you down before, but suddenly you fall under his spell. What have you done? You’ve lost faith in what they said. What happens when he breaks your heart? You wake up, and you say, “Why didn’t I think?” You walked by faith? No, you walked by sight. Faith, therefore, is not the absence of thinking. Not at all. Faith is the highest, and it’s the most complete kind of thinking. | Three people all say, “Do not fall in love with that guy. He will break your heart.” You believe those people, and they’ve never let you down before, but suddenly you fall under his spell. What have you done? You’ve lost faith in what they said. What happens when he breaks your heart? You wake up, and you say, “Why didn’t I think?” You walked by faith? No, you walked by sight. Faith, therefore, is not the absence of thinking. Not at all. Faith is the highest, and it’s the most complete kind of thinking. | ||