Faith, in my mind, is defined as belief without proof. amirite?

EDIT:

Wikipedia wrote:

As with "trust", faith involves a concept of future events or outcomes, and is used conversely for a belief "not resting on logical proof or material evidence.

In this case, what the hell is the point of faith? It seems to me that, in our society, being a faithful person is a good thing to be, and is generally considered a positive personality trait
Meaning that it's a good, positive thing to believe in something without any proof for it.

WHAT THE HELL?

Can someone explain this bullshit to me?

I rather have to agree with you there. Whereas trust is earned, faith (at least in a religious sense) seems to be something that deities feel entitled to. HEY DEITIES! THIS IS A GIVE AND TAKE RELATIONSHIP! IF YOU DON'T START LOVING ME TOO WE ARE THROUGH

At least according to earlier Judaism and stuff God was all like "if you don't believe in me and follow my rules I will fuck you and your entire race/civilization/culture/tribe up"

and with Christianity it's more just like if you don't believe in God you're going to go to hell but he probably won't bother with you now

You need faith because you don't have faith you are going to hell but you need to have faith in that same religion to believe in that particular hell so it's kind of circular logic amirite?

faith as a concept outside of religion is basically just like hoping but when you're pretty sure whatever goal was actually going to be achieved so that's cool i guess

Yes, but where in the history of our society does the idea of faith as a good thing come from?

In my opinion, faith (and religion in genral) serve a very important purpose in human experience: teaching us that we are not in control of your lives, ultimately.

Faith in God allows people to accept that Shit Happens. It's God's plan. Or the universe's or whatever. Basically, it allows you to go forward in life, experiencing ridiculous amounts of pain, and not go insane. Of course, it is possible to do this without faith, but it seems to help a lot of people.

I believe that the whole point of faith is just for us to have meaning and purpose. For many people it seems completely pointless for us to do anything without faith. "I don't believe in God, so what the hell is the point for us to do anything? It's not like we have anything to look forward to." Even in our current existence, without any sort of faith all existence seems fairly trivial. People just can't accept that without some sort of "higher power" we really have no meaning or purpose.

It may be sad, but it's rather true. When people cant, or dont want to, figure out a purpose for life or what they should be doing, its much easier to turn their beiliefs to a "higher power". Religion and faith provide a way for this. Religion tells them what to do so they dont have to think for themselves. And saying they're faithful and having faith allows them to follow without questions. I think the reason that a lot of the gifted population isn't particularly religious in the traditional sense(I'm not saying this is the case for all, nor is there anything wrong with being religious) is because they like thinking for themselves and dont necessarily like conforming to what they're told.

I used to be pretty religious, and I think it was mostly an easy way to fit in and it was what I'd been taught my whole life. My reason for pulling away was something that happened at church that upset me, but once I did I began questioning things and noticing contradictions. Up to that point, being faithful had taught me not to question anything and just go with it. Though this could be a bad thing, in ways its also a good thing. It made it so I didnt have to deal with the stress and internal struggle of questioning what I was taught until I was mature enough to handle it (which is probably a lot later in life for a majority of people) Also, "faith" helped me through a lot of bad times because I told myself that everything happened for a reason and God would get me through it. So, although faith can have negative effects by causing people to follow blindly, I think those are some of the reasons it is considered a good thing in our society.

You're confusing faith with organized religion. Faith is the equivalent of hope, insofar as if you don't have it, you're not really happy. It's a very cynical world to believe that things are incapable of surpassing your minuscule expectations based on a limited resource pool and a tiny amount of personal experience. Faith reminds man to always remain humble and hope for a better outcome. I question the likelihood of progress without some deal of faith, even if it denies probability.

Organized religion, on the other hand, is more what I see being debated. Organized religion is designed as a massive idea larger than the people to whom it is attached, and because of this, it has to be simple, undeniable and make basic suggestions (sometimes commandments) about the way people should live, because often times people are unwilling to think beyond the first thing they know. It's a code of ethics that holds people responsible for themselves, and reminds them and sometimes creates incentives for them to be "good." The beauty of this is that it's broadly applicable, and usually benign; Sadly, like any force with acclimated power and respect, it can sometimes be mishandled, such as the Crusades in the middle ages or the terrorism of radical Islam now. Even Nazism was generated with a great deal of religious persuasion, vis-á-vis persecution of Jews. Keep in mind, however, that the religious are also 25% more likely to offer charitable donations, and organized religion is responsible for an enormous sector of the charitable donations economy. It's a powerful force. People just need to remember who's in charge of their own lives. Sadly, they don't; for this I blame (possibly wrongly, but I'm pretty convinced here) the nanny state progressivism that seems sadly synonymous with politics these days...

Regardless, faith is a tool in the human arsenal, and I doubt it would've survived evolution without serving a useful purpose.