Echo

I've always heard that faith is something that everyone needs to be fully happy, and in a way I suppose that saying is right. My whole life I've had religious issues, for some reason I just can't seem to trust and believe in the thought of God. To most people this probably makes me an Athiest, but I have never claimed to be an Athiest and never will, simply because I know that a higher power exists, I just don't know who or what that higher power is and how to believe in it. That is exactly why I have turned to Self Discovery.

I have a great life and all the material things I need, but I think for me to be truly satisfied with my life I need something more, maybe I am wrong, but I think faith would help me out alot in life.

Everyone I have talked to tells me to "just have faith".
I guess they don't understand that it's not that easy, if I could just have faith then I would have claimed a religion a long time ago.

My main questions are: how do you acquire faith and how do you keep it when you do obtain it? Can one person be more faithful than another? Do you really need faith to be happy?

Hopefully I can get some answers from some of you great people here on AO ^-^

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Joe Mage

Jus' as ppl must find their own path in life, ppl must find their own beliefs. The only advice that I can give is ta find ur own path ta faith, whatever it may b. It isn' easy ta find ur particular faith, I had some questions 'bout mine. I may believe in God and believe that Christ was my savior, I don' believe in churches and there r things in the Bible that I don' agree wit. Yet, for the most part, I found that I agreed wit much of the principles of the Bible and Christ. This is the faith I chose and the path that I walk, but it's not the same for evry1. There is another piece of advice that I can give u; don' let any1 try ta bully u inta believin' in somethin' that u don'. There r some fanatics out there who believe that they r absolutely right. Jus' follow ur heart, relatively speakin', and make up ur own mind how and what u want ta believe in. It's good that u're seekin' advice, but ultimately it's up ta u. This is somethin' that each person must come ta terms wit on their own.

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"Believe in yourself, if in nothing else."
My myspace page: www.myspace.com/joemage

Hassun

You don't need to believe in a God to be happy at all Echo. You can put your faith into a lot of things you know.

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Abu Dhabi

having faith and keeping faith are to very hard things to do...

and the only way to really have an answer to your faith is to question why you want them, why you need them...

so ask yourself:

who do i want to belive in?
why do i need to believe in them?
why do i want to believe in them?

and lastly:

is this something i believe or just want to believe?

for me, it's a little of everything... i believe in God becuz i want to. becuz i know that someone has been there, things have happend that really couldn't have happend... and i know that goodness comes from God... it may have helped that i went to a Christian school but... when there is something holy in your heart, you just kinda know where it comes from!

and don't expect it to come so quickly! give yourself time to develop, time to think, time to grow... ^_^ if you knock, He will answer. when He will answer is totally up to Him though...

^_^ Good luck!

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tsurara

Then, you have been lied to

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Soshi Kitai

Sorry, I'm going to be... a bit chatty.

It's easy to have faith if you're blind.
Afterall, the blind need to trust things that they can't see.
So, if you want to easily have faith, close your mind to things and just trust.


... that's the easy way out.

Faith is never easy to have in a world that needs to see things to believe it. Faith is also never easy to those who question...
The ones who seek more answers, will only find more questions. And the more questions found, the more Faith seems like... a fantasy.

To the blind who ask questions, they just look to a Book to find answers... they think they're philosophers and true questioners of life, yet they never seem to question "What if this Book is lying to me?".
...they're afraid to... afraid to be cast out, afraid to be hated, afraid to be damned.
Understandable, but cowardly.
If a person seeks a true answer, they'll stop at no means to obtain it.

... but even that can be dangerous: Sometimes people find the truth, but it's not what they were looking for, and they're consumed by it.

...so what is the truth?



...the problem is, there's more than one REAL answer.
We humans believe that if you give a name to something, it can always be identified and will always be the same in function and possibly appearance.
...we created that logic so that we had a foundation to stand on.
We believe in that logic so much so, that we stop change!
We try our hardest to stop a species from dying out (even if it wasn't our fault), we try our hardest to prevent storms to cause the destruction they were made to do, we try our hardest to rebuild what was lost... and find those who try to create change: A menace.
Yet it has happened over the thousands-millions-billions of years the universe has existed, species fight for survival and dominance, plants create poisons and weapons to destroy the other plant, the earth battles itself to create more land and space.
And everytime, it reached a point, where it all needed to stop and restart.
...like a forest fire, it destroys... yet leaves so much room for new life to begin anew.

We humans stop this from happening. We detest the idea of something evolving more to what it can be... because if it does, we can no longer identify it... it becomes something like "magic" to us, something unexplainable... something... dangerous.
Yet, have you noticed that we destroyed these dangerous things even in our Faiths?!

Take all the Holy Books from every religion!
Name one that you 100% know it wasn't altered to protect the group that owned it!
Name one that you 100% know it wasn't altered to better fit the change in cultures!
...something strange has happened in our faiths...
Religions have become corrupt through the years we humans existed... and though they change for the better, they still follow a corrupted book... a corrupted tablet... a corrupted bamboo scroll...

Only the hermits who lived by themselves, who learned things through self-discovery have found untainted truth... and they know one thing: They need not spread it.
For those who truly wish to seek the truth will find it. And those who happen upon a truth that they don't deserve, will only corrupt it for their own use.

... but is that to say these holy books hold no truth?
... you read them, and think to yourself "That is beyond true."
You feel as if that rule has existed beyond the existance of humans...
... truth is, you can find a Foundation everywhere... even in the most "evil" and "corrupt" places.

There's truth in everything, even in a lie.
And when you look at it, you'll realize something...
what that is, is up to you to find.

... but for me, "A higher being exists. A being that manifests and creates. A being beyond words and recognition... the holy books all refer to such a being exists. ...the holy books seem to have related rules and worships... that higher being came to us and talked to us, 'walked' with us... and we just misunderstood it." is all I'm willing to share.

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Priestess Angel

I can understand what you mean. I am a very logical person and have never been a person who can just believe something on the spot. I have questions and I want answers so it is very hard for me to have faith. If something doesn't make sense to me or seems to be too fantastical of a thought to be true than I just can't believe it. So I have had many issues with religion, God, and the bible.

In the end, I had to make the decision to stop listening to what I thought people wanted me to believe and than decide for myself whether I believed in something or not. I started to form my own beliefs and I will say right now that my beliefs are definitely not part of the social norms in my place in the world but that's okay. If I had to label myself than I would say I'm an agnostic because honestly my belief doesn't completely fit with any specific religion.

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P.R. Princess

mm well to me i think that in order to be ttuely happy you do need a faith. and then again
you dont have to have a faith and be just as equallly happy as someone who does but i honestly believe that there is a God and i may not have always believed in him but i do now. and i cant see my self turning back.

because i guess i finally hit a point where i reached rock bottom and i went to church one day with my ex at his church and his church is very different from every church i would think. and like ever since going i have felt this like feeling in my chest that i just cant explain you just know what it is. and to me is was god in me and everything. sounds stupid and anyone could try and prove it wrong but thats just what i believe.
and really its not just about finding your faith i mean if you were in Christianity you would have to choose what you want to believe in because christens have different beliefs from each other. and also your church. for me going to church with my mum i am not satisfied as i would be with i went with one of my friends church. i would rather be at his church than with my mum. and its hard to explain but you would really know it when it all happens.

soo yea i hope this makes sense .lol
sorry if it doesnt

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Luminous

I'm definately of the thought that you don't need to have faith to be happy. Not having faith has actually made me happier. I get a sort of free feeling from it, it's kind of hard to explain, that, or I'm too lazy to. Hmm..maybe both!

Anyways, I don't think there is any one way to aquire faith, I guess its sort of a personal thing that will vary from person to person. I could venture a guess and say you probably won't aquire it through looking for it, but rather, an experience that does so will probably come to you.

But no, faith isn't required for happyness or a sense of fulfillment. It may very well be for some people the thing that makes them feel that extra something, but a requirement, it isn't.

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blue_rebel

Let's clarify things first. I am assuming that by "faith", you mean "religion", or some kind of religious cult following, at the very least. Not just any old
strong belief.

I don't know how one "acquires" faith. You just have faith. You believe. I mean, it's like sitting on a chair without thinking about how stable it is. It's an
analogy a lot of people use, so it's become kind of clichéd, but it does accurately describe what faith is like. You don't think twice, you just believe and
know. As a Christian, I must say having "faith in God" is really a hard thing to do, because if I had faith the size of a mustard seed I would be moving
mountains and doing a lot of really amazing things. But because I'm not, it's obvious I don't really have that much faith at all. I wish I did, but getting
there is a HUGE struggle. And though some agnostics and atheists tell me, in response, that there is no point if professing a certain faith is so difficult,
I tell them right back that it is because it is so difficult that it is all the more worthwhile taking part in the struggle.

You know how after working really hard on a tough Calculus problem you finally work out the answer? That feeling of having achieved something great..
I get that feeling every time I say a little prayer and it seems like it's been answered. (i.e. when I pray for guidance on a midterm, and God answers by
putting my mind at ease; or when I ask Him to help me look for something I've lost, and He answers by helping me jog my memory) I reckon that the
day I really DO manage to muster faith the size of a mustard seed or bigger, that feeling will be multiplied tenfold, a hundredfold, maybe even more.

And that, I suppose, brings us to the question about needing faith to be happy. I suppose it is possible to be "happy" without professing faith in something,
but I feel that that happiness is kind of superficial. When you have faith in something, and that something comes true, then the whole world will suddenly
seem right to you. Because what matters is what you have faith in, yes? If you don't believe in something, why should it matter what becomes of it? And
so because I have faith in my religion, with every passing day a little facet of it is revealed to me, I am happy. When a prayer is answered, I am happy.
When someone comes to Christ, I am happy. In a sense, your faith becomes something like a basis for you to feel not necessarily "happy", per se, but
"fulfilled"... do you see what I mean?

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Echo

Well you all have definitely given me alot to think about.
I am glad I got so many different opinions, and have really taken to heart what you all have said. Maybe I don't need faith and maybe I do...I suppose I'll find out when the time comes and until then I will focus on other important things in my life that need attending to.
I think that's really all any of us can do when we are faced with something such as this. I think this is one of those things that has to come to you. Then again I could be wrong, but either way I am not going to stop searching until I find peace.

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