Faith?

This came up in a discussion at a pagan community I frequent, here's the link for context if you wish(http://community.livejournal.com/nonfluffypagans/681473.html)
Really though this particular statement states alone ...

"Faith is irrelevant in the Craft"

Discuss

 

Faith is little more than the trust in what you believe to be right. If you do not believe your craft may work, but what would be the point?

Do agnostics attend church???

 

Yes, Sometimes.

 

I believe faith is important in ANY spiritual endeavour..."spiritual" being the key word. If it's not corporeal and/or you can't prove it with science, then it's "of the spirit world" and the only tangibles are the results which your faith produce. Skeptics and cynics need not bring up placebo effects in this thread...

 

I disagree malakala, i dont think everything that hasnt been proven by science belongs in the 'spirit world'

 

yeah, UU ones.

 

I would tend to agree that faith is irrelevent. I'm not saying it's forbidden, it just doesn't relate to the religion.

No matter what sect/tradition you practice, in my view paganism is about pure, unadulterated existence. It's about feeling the presence of deities and spirits: seeing them, feeling them...not believing in them. The God of the Abrahamic tradition, the Hindu gods, and other gods of salvationist religions don't ask you to experience them, they ask you to believe in them. While many pagans choose to believe in their deities, I don't see how it relates back to the purity of the tradition. To me, the thing that identifies paganism is that it is about the verbs of being, living, feeling, dancing, seeing; whereas salvationist religions seem to be somewhat sterile and plastic, asking followers to believe. And that's it.

 

faith is a big part of whatever you are associated with.....if you dont have faith in what you do it's not going to work out........ especially being associated with the craft....... it's pretty much pointless if there is no faith associated...... people in this day seem to automatically associate everything relating to faith to religion....... but any religion is based on a person having faith in what they believe right??? so if you dont believe "have faith in" in the craft..... it wont necessarily work for you....... i mean its just my opinion but ive seen it happen....... you have to believe in everything you do..

 

I couldn't agee more ....My beliefs come from "experiences" not "expectations"

 

I'm pagan myself, I really like the way white raven put it. We don't "believe" in our deities, we live with them.