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Originally Posted by Cheese
faith
religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"
Aceptance of ideals, beliefs, etc., which are not necessarily demonstrable through experimentation or reason.
I think most of the theists here are having a tough time trying to get ahold of what you speak. A supposed Christian who believes in a God...yet knows theres no legitmate explanation for the vast majority of theist principles...other than faith.
A Deist perhaps?
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No. Not a deist.
I am no expert, but in my estimation, deists dealt with the vast complexities of the universe and its natural order by explaining away the supernatrual elements of scripture (miracles) through natural means. For example, the ridiculous nonsense that perhaps Jesus walked on an ice-covered sea of Galilee serves as an explanation for the New Testament's record as a legitimate one. For a deist, there is an element of scientific veracity to the claims of scripture. As such, one is confronted with the need to rationalize those elements which do not conform to their highly naturalistic constructs. I experience no such need.
I do not reject the miraculous—I actually believe I may have witnessed a few!—but neither do I accept that the Bible's presentation of miracles is necessarily factual. I believe in the divine inspiration of sacred literature, but this is a different matter than the concept of "biblical innerency." My faith remains something that is intangible and difficult to explain in large part because I refuse to rationalize it. It may appear contradictory and perhaps paradoxical to many—especially to those who require a naturalistic explanation for the order and opperation of all things (naturalists and creationists alike! most of the latter tend to label me a heretic, but aren't we all?). Reason is the liimit of man's capacity to explain the unexplainable, and herein—I believe—is where God and the supernatural is inscrutable and accessed only through faith.