Re: virus: Faith, Logic and Purpose

William Roh (bill_roh@coneco.com)
Wed, 12 Nov 1997 12:11:03 -0800


Marie L. Foster wrote:
>
> At 12:04 PM 11/11/97 -0700, David responded to Reed and wrote:
> >
> >No, if you have faith, then you cannot be convinced to change your
> >mind by rational argument. If you could, then you wouldn't have
> >faith, see?
> >
>
> David... I see this as a circular argument without merit. Faith does not
> exclude doubt. For quite a number of years I wondered about my faith in my
> son. He is a good person but often seems to lack common sense. For that
> reason he often seemed to go charging off in wrong directions with frequent
> disasterous results. (I never cast myself as the Mother of a Don Quixote,
> but that was what I got!) However, I kept reminding myself that my faith
> in him came from my own rational belief in my parenting (he lost his father
> when he was very young) and in his ability to learn from his mistakes.
>
> That faith has been rewarded. He did not choose the path I wanted him to
> take, and it took him longer to settle into a pattern that will sustain him
> but it was worth not loosing faith as our bond is stronger for the journey.
>
> Marie
>
> Marie L. Foster
>
> <http://www.geocities.com/~mfos/>

i would suggest that you did lose faith, and went into the concept of
"belief" instead. I think that you called it "faith" to avoid the
psychological blow of not having "faith" in a loved one. i may be way
off too.
Also, "faith" that someone else will do the right thing is a bit
different than having "faith" in a god. You had lots of evidence and
direct, physical proof of his existence and behavior. i think, but do
not know, that it is a lot easier to have "faith" when so little is on
the line (like the basic human mistakes that we all make - i am not
atempting to degrade the importance of the relationship you have with
your son.)

Sodom