This faith thing is difficult.  I understand the value of Christian values, but I can't accept, personally, the Bible and it's story of Jesus as being the absolute truth.  I'm probably never going to accept it, and I will always be perplexed by people's willingness to accept it as fact.

I haven't been able to find anyone who can explain to me why they believe something without some means of proving that it's true.  The fact that so many people believe, or claim to, doesn't make it so.  The fact that so much is invested in churches isn't proof.  I don't think that wanting an intelligent reason for believing something is beyond reasonable.

I know the Bible was assembled and edited by a handful of powerful people, and I've read some of the text that's been omitted.  I'm very suspicious of the history of the book and I think anyone who is interested in the truth would be.

I know a lot of people claim the faith simply because they have been indoctrinated from childhood to accept it.  Others do it for social reasons.  I cannot accept it because I can't find any reason to.  I'm not looking for reasons not to believe it, I'm only looking for facts, and an old Bible that's been modified over time doesn't qualify as a source of facts.

My only faith is that God, whoever he is, will make sure I learn the things I need to know.  So far that doesn't include Jesus.  At least not in the context of the Bible.  I know people who claim to believe because they are afraid that they will be sent to hell for eternity if they don't.  They are taking what they see as the safest route, but they are really just gambling.

I think we have the ability to think and to learn for a reason.  I'm pretty sure it's just as valid a process where faith and spirituality are concerned as it is in other areas of life.  Maybe it's even more critical when your faced with an issue for which the world offers so little in the way of facts, other than the fact that religion has been, for the most part, a source of hate, murder and destruction. 

Still, like I said already, I understand the value of Christian principles, I just can't base a spiritual belief on it.  For that I guess I'm going to have to depend on experience and God.

This faith thing is difficult.  I understand the value of Christian values, but I can't accept, personally, the Bible and it's story of Jesus as being the absolute truth.  I'm probably never going to accept it, and I will always be perplexed by people's willingness to accept it as fact.

I have some agreement n disagreement w what your saying. Christian faith is really a coupling of their faith, their local own community, and their pastor. I'd say its similar to community club chapter.

However, those that believe the bible as studious as theology ppl would have better grasp in the faith than those that just have faith in bible and the local community and faith they've joined.

Some just need the discipline of the faith to be strong to not drink, smoke, steal, murder, etc because faith becomes their new drug of choice. Replacing the bad faith with the good faith. Changing whom they commune with and bringing those the dark into the light of faith.

Imagine that some of them just don't get that the stories in the bible may not be entirely accurate as like a history or science book. Imagine a writer reading and dissecting the themes, the characters, the protagonist, the relationships, the conspiracies, etc. Gosh the TV series Supernatural would put the Christian war into perspective. Each Book in the bible is a different POV of faith and yea I hear a certain book is a bit radical than the others. I guess its also about reading the companion books to understand who are the writers of each book.

Perhaps in the community as long as those that believe in god should be following most of the requirements of faith may be in theory faithful to the religion. There could be more faith\trust in such a community than a mafia organization.

Perhaps as one is immersed in the religion there is a form of personal identification.

The more advance bible study and theology crowd can go about discussing religion in the different forms that is much different than church Sunday meeting. ie: They can discuss the character Jesus in more detail and point out how other preachers could be wrong in sharing who Jesus is. The ones that study the dead sea scrolls would have access to the unedited n un-simplified version of the bible including the missing chapters.

The question you might ask is why aren't we teaching the real bible than the simplified bible. The simple answer, tradition n dogma has made its place to stay.

lol, the movie Stigmata is interesting in pointing out the simple teaching of jesus and how the faith is shared. This would be a threat to the current dogma and tradition. In theory, it would hurt the global religion business if many people changed whats been in place for centuries.

The missing part of the bible is really the lack of understanding of Orthodox Jews. I've been fortunate to have worked for unorthodox and orthodox Jews. The community is sort of tribal that is link to their community leader, their rabbi and their copy of the tora.

The interesting thing learned from being able to ask some questions of them seems to help explain how ppl are in christian religion. Religion or no religion, people are people. Good and Bad in different individual makes n models. Yes, ppl have belief and yet they break the covenant or how they should be. It seems that is the human factor. More like you're in the club you get the club discount or you're not.

Still one would ask where is the faith? Perhaps that's sort of directed by ones community leader and what one has learn over the years.  

Here's a funny observation. There are those who are naturally good and are trustworthy ppl. They seem to not need to go to church because they don't steal or do the bad things that the bible states is bad habit. They involve themselves in different communities other than religious ones. They do have simple faith of a higher power and understand the needs of family, job, and personal life.

The isolated ppl are the ones that has fallen out of harmony of life with their family or community. Somewhere there is some form of incompatibility that disrupts their life or happiness. Some don't trust other. Some don't need others but they do need someone but would not admit it. Some need a predictable habit. Some need life to fall into stages of growth and responsibility.

Gosh I hate dis-functionality but it does exist. ie: Working for a SB company that keeps you busy but doesn't promote a form of belonging, teamwork, and growth. Living in a family that has a similar format as well. 

Imagine the disruption between what TV, Religion, etc spell out how life should be and how such things don't happen in isolated ppl lives. It feels unfair.

And yet that where one winds up depending on experience and the simple belief in god. Gosh we've become the Rodney Dangerfield (joke)

Perhaps the isolated have become to be individual units that can be easily mated to an accepting community or person when the gamble of life throws the dice. Some of us get the lucky throw and some don't

Yes, its human to learn, to strategize, to gamble ... its a matter that one has a good track record in being successful or learning from ones mistakes while rolling with the punches of life.

Religion or no religion. Its fundamental to be human n have flaws to not be perfect human being. There is a matter of find ppl who are accepting of one's ability n place in life which leads to belonging to a community.

lol, yes, I have met a weird Orthodox Jew or a weird religiousness or non-religious person. Yes, I have the non weird ppl. But somewhere there is acceptance or not. There is trust or not. Sometime there is belonging and there is not.

Perhaps the question is? Is there faith n trust in someone or not. Is there maturity in someone or not. etc.The proof is how ppl are is the ppl you meet through life. Is this one going to cheat me? Does this person have a sense of humor? Does this person care what he does? etc? Does this person know what he's doing? etc.

as Bill W said "Its a puzzlement:"