Faith is a major component of Christianity. For example, Jesus says to Thomas“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So Thomas, who knows Jesus is resurrected because he has seen and felt him, is less blessed than those who simply believe (but don’t know). Likewise, though God could easily get a bunch of converts by showing Himself, doing that would lose the faith aspect.
Don’t go being smart and saying that you by definition have faith in things you know—Christians don’t mean this definition of faith, nor is it necessarily true. You can also set up certain experiments you personally know by the laws of physics won’t hurt you, yet if you measure your fight or flight response will realize that you “believe” they are dangerous despite knowing they are not. Or compare how you feel about roller coasters compared to other activities you know to be of comparable likelihood of injury.
Another thing is that it is the dogma of many Christian denominations, that faith is a prerequisite (for some the only prerequisite) to salvation. Thus I claim that for Christians, faith is a more praiseworthy trait than knowledge of the same thing as a fact. A Christian who says that they know God exists, is signalling a very strong faith and most definitely not that they don’t need faith because they have factual knowledge.
Now although Christian, Jew, and Muslim all claim to follow the same God of Abraham, I can’t say for sure how this applies to your Jewish friend. The Torah also has “thou shalt not put God to the test”, and various bits praising faith, plus they also need something that predicts that God doesn’t go show Himself to the world population. Anyone here know whether for Jews it is better to believe in God than to know God exists?
Your entire post is basically redefining words. You specify that Christian “faith” is really “faith in things that cannot be proven”. A Christian who “knows” is really “one who feels extremely confident”. And “belief” is now “fight or flight response”. These aren’t the concepts the original post is about.
Faith is a major component of Christianity. For example, Jesus says to Thomas“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So Thomas, who knows Jesus is resurrected because he has seen and felt him, is less blessed than those who simply believe (but don’t know). Likewise, though God could easily get a bunch of converts by showing Himself, doing that would lose the faith aspect.
Don’t go being smart and saying that you by definition have faith in things you know—Christians don’t mean this definition of faith, nor is it necessarily true. You can also set up certain experiments you personally know by the laws of physics won’t hurt you, yet if you measure your fight or flight response will realize that you “believe” they are dangerous despite knowing they are not. Or compare how you feel about roller coasters compared to other activities you know to be of comparable likelihood of injury.
Another thing is that it is the dogma of many Christian denominations, that faith is a prerequisite (for some the only prerequisite) to salvation. Thus I claim that for Christians, faith is a more praiseworthy trait than knowledge of the same thing as a fact. A Christian who says that they know God exists, is signalling a very strong faith and most definitely not that they don’t need faith because they have factual knowledge.
Now although Christian, Jew, and Muslim all claim to follow the same God of Abraham, I can’t say for sure how this applies to your Jewish friend. The Torah also has “thou shalt not put God to the test”, and various bits praising faith, plus they also need something that predicts that God doesn’t go show Himself to the world population. Anyone here know whether for Jews it is better to believe in God than to know God exists?
Your entire post is basically redefining words. You specify that Christian “faith” is really “faith in things that cannot be proven”. A Christian who “knows” is really “one who feels extremely confident”. And “belief” is now “fight or flight response”. These aren’t the concepts the original post is about.