Faith or Preference

Date: Category: faith
Faith or Preference Image by DALL-E AI
Faith or Preference Image by DALL-E AI

In the previous post, The Avoidance Strategy 3, we discussed how some people use the word Faith to avoid confronting flaws in their doctrine. Please take no offense, for it is my sincere intention to share the Truth that others may try to avoid. This avoidance often prevents individuals from engaging with the logic and reason behind the errors of their beliefs. Now, we will show why using Faith as an excuse is problematic, as it can prevent people from seeing the Truth and lead them to believe that their Faith is the only valid one. We will also explore the differences between Faith and Preference and examine how Belief and Entitlement are often linked to Faith.

First, let us establish that our Context is about Religious Faith and not Faith in other aspects like Faith in Humanity or Faith in Love, etc. Let us start. If someone asks your favorite color, and you answer blue, would you call it Faith or Preference? Of course, we cannot call choosing blue as Fajth, but it is a Preference. Each is entitled to their Preference, i.e., some may like white or other color. Does it require imposing religious laws to make blue your favorite color? The answer is no. We are not obliged by any religious law to make blue our Preference. We can see that Preference is a personal choice that does not force others to make it their choice. Preference does not imply Truth because it does not rely on the validity of Truthfulness. For example, a child likes to have a triangle-shaped moon. Whether a triangle-shaped moon is True or not, will not matter because that is the Preference of that child to have a triangle-shaped moon. As such, Preference is a personal choice toward something, which may or may not involve philosophical or theological reasoning. The most important key is that Preference does not require adhering to the Truth.

Contrary to Preference, Faith, on the other hand, requires adhering to the Truth. That is why merging Religion with Fantasy is not advisable, as it blurs the line between standing for the Truth or Fantasy, as explained in The Santa Claus Effect post. Religion should focus on the Truth because True Faith depends on the Truth. The confusion comes when many think of Miracles as Faith. Faith involves theological views, traditions, laws, etc. Miracles may or may not, but does not require all of those things. Miracles are a supplement to Faith, but it is not Faith itself. Knowing the Nature of GOD is the Solid Foundation of Faith. The misnomer emerges when some see Miracles as inexplicable and use that to view Faith as also inexplicable which is wrong because it leads people to act unreasonably or irrationally when dealing with Faith. Again, Faith relies on theological views, laws, and traditions and is based on rationality. Even if they reason that it’s unfathomable, still within their theological view, there’s a logic to why it became unfathomable. Going into details for this matter requires a separate post, so we will focus on differentiating Preference and Faith. Our point here is Preference is not Faith because Faith imposes adherence to the Truth while Preference does not.

Figure A. Intentional Infinite Loop
Figure A. Intentional Infinite Loop

The key to Faith is accepting the Truth. In the situation when they understand that their doctrine is wrong and uses Faith to avoid the argument, then we cannot consider it as Faith anymore because Faith adheres to the Truth and does not avoid it. That is why in many religious debates, some debates will not end because the losing side will raise their flag of Faith to avoid admitting the loopholes and fallacy of their doctrine to keep the dignity of their Faith, even if they see that something is wrong in their doctrine, as shown in the above Figure A. Intentional Infinite Loop. This leads to avoidance elaborated in the following posts: Avoidance Strategy 1, Avoidance Strategy 2, and Avoidance Strategy 3.

Some may still argue that Faith is their so-called “Preference of Beliefs,” so we will see how the word Belief differs from Faith. A Belief does not necessarily follow any laws. For example, you believe your friend will help you in times of trouble, and it does not imply adhering to any law for you to believe in it. Believing in something does not impose that your Belief is True. For example, in a court hearing, you trust that your friend that he is not guilty of the charges. Now, that is your Belief. It is your stand on what to trust, but what you trust does not imply that it is the Truth. Faith does not work that way. Another example: During the time of Galileo Galilei, many believed that the world was geostatic and geocentric because that is their interpretation and part of their Set of Beliefs. With this error in their interpretation, can you call it Faith at that point? I think it is only a Belief but not Faith at that point because Faith adheres to the Truth, and I’m glad that the Roman Catholic Church accepts its error. We can see that even if people believe in those erroneous claims, it is not right to call it Faith. Yes, some can argue that it is a Wrong Faith, but my point is that we should not use the adjective (e.g., wrong) because Faith itself is about the Truth (updated my previous posts to align to this learning), and there’s no such thing as Wrong Truth or Correct Truth, for Truth is Truth and Faith is Faith. We can use other adjectives like Strong to describe a Strong Faith or those adjectives that affirm what Faith is, but not those adjectives that negate the essence of the word Faith. Faith deals with the Truth about GOD and our relationship with Him, and there’s only one Truth. The problem in our world today is many religions claim that their doctrine stands for the Truth about GOD.

Aside from using Faith as a scapegoat, others use Free Will so they will be respected even if they know that something is wrong with their doctrine. Having Free Will does not imply that what you believe is correct. Free Will is not just about decisions, but it is a decision that involves choosing what is right from wrong. For example, during Galileo Galilei’s time, people had the free will to support the Roman Catholic doctrine of the geostatic and geocentric model instead of Heliocentrism. Yes, they have the Free Will to adhere to the Roman Catholic doctrine, but it does not imply that what they believe is the Truth. Similarly, you are entitled to your Preference or what to Believe, but Entitlement does not imply Truth. Your Entitlement is only part of your Free Will. For the Free Will topic, feel free to read Section 3.3 Free Will and Angels and Section 3.4 Free Will and Time of the free book Save Our Souls. Now, you have Entitlement to your Faith. The problem is that many use entitlement to avoid confronting the errors of their doctrine. We can say that it is your Faith, but we cannot say you own this kind of Faith. Yes, you are entitled and say it is your Faith, but using Faith as a scapegoat to avoid accepting the Truth and deter from listening to reason is Wrong. Faith is a relationship with GOD, so no one owns Faith. Entitlement of Faith is internal to you, but Faith itself is external to us because we do not decide the Nature of GOD is. GOD decides what Faith is because GOD is the Truth, as GOD stated: “I am who I am” in Exodus 3:14.

Faith involves laws and principles. For example, having Faith in GOD follows that GOD has attributes that humans can associate with and help to know the Truth about GOD and Faith itself. These attributes are what we call the Nature of GOD. We know that GOD is Pure, and this Purity of GOD applies to His Nature because if any of the Nature of GOD contains any blemish, no matter how small, this blemish will create a Ripple Effect in other Nature of GOD, so on the level of the Nature of GOD, it follows the Law of Purity of GOD because He is Perfect. It is where some will avoid the Truth because the doctrine they stand for introduces impurities on the Nature of GOD, specifically, the Roman Catholic doctrine. The Truth is Impurity is not the way of GOD, and their doctrine pushes Man as GOD, which creates impurity and Ripple Effect on the Nature of GOD. It is where many will avoid and ignore to continue calling what they believe as Faith. Again, we cannot call it Faith anymore because Faith adheres to Truth and does not avoid it. The Truth is that GOD is always pure in His actions, ways, existence, and all states, for GOD is Perfect. We can call it Preference of Beliefs, but avoiding the Truth is not Faith. If you are not familiar with the Paradigm of Faith, feel free to read the posts The RIght Paradigm of Faith and The Wrong Paradigm of Faith

For misconceptions, please read Chapter 14 of the Save Our Souls free book. May GOD bless you for reading this post.

References

  1. https://ahavahpublisher.com/book/ “Save Our Souls. Fritz Jeran Velasco, 2024”