(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2008 06:54 amwishing a very Happy BIRTHDAY to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jtheta. my friend for 11 YEARS NOW> this means he's older than that! :)
jtheta. my friend for 11 YEARS NOW> this means he's older than that! :)Jul. 1st, 2008
(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2008 08:52 ami am scheduled for 10:45 am tomorrow.
prayers, crossed fingers and all other forms of well-wishes are welcome.
prayers, crossed fingers and all other forms of well-wishes are welcome.
(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2008 09:53 amyesterday i was listening to an interview on the craftlit podcast with heather ordover. she was talking to the two guys who wrote plato and a platypus walk into a bar, a book about philosophy in humor....and these guys are not only into philosophy, they are into theology as well. could we say this is up my alley? why yes, indeed we could.
anyway, they got into a discussion about faith vs. belief and how heather runs into people who say jews don't believe in jesus....which is a flat out ridiculous statement. jews certainly believe there was a man named jesus who lived about 2000 years ago. the romans have records of crucifying him. jews don't believe jesus was the son of God. this is an entirely different statement. which just goes to show that christians are as guilty of not saying what they mean as everyone else.
however, they went on in the interview to talk about whether there is a difference between faith and belief. and this is what was interesting to me, because there is this lovely and brilliant british theologian named e.p. sanders who talks about this exact issue.
english comes from two languages - anglo-saxon and normon french. in many cases this adds great richness to our language due to having many words for the same thing. we have words like pork and beef in addition to swine and cattle. the germans use the same words for both the animal and the food form. as sanders points out, calling our food swine-flesh, as they do, would strike english speakers as gross.
however, there are places in english where one form of speech has simply driven the other out. the case of faith and belief is one of them. we have no verb form of faith. "to believe" has taken its place. we can say "to have faith". but this is passive voice and misses out on the strength of what it means to BELIEVE in something. but in truth, "to believe" has the connotation of opinion, and faith does not. faith is more like the knowledge that comes from the heart, rather than the head. we have faith that our loved ones love us...and it isn't just from their actions, there is faith involved. we have faith in the direction of our govenrment (or maybe not just now). we have faith that people can change...these are not mere issues of opinion. certainly they are issues of opinion, but they are not MERE issues of opinion. there is something else behind what we feel when we care passionately about something we cannot prove. when we see something in a person, but we cannot say what it is. it is knowledge of the heart, not of the head. it is faith.
anyway, they got into a discussion about faith vs. belief and how heather runs into people who say jews don't believe in jesus....which is a flat out ridiculous statement. jews certainly believe there was a man named jesus who lived about 2000 years ago. the romans have records of crucifying him. jews don't believe jesus was the son of God. this is an entirely different statement. which just goes to show that christians are as guilty of not saying what they mean as everyone else.
however, they went on in the interview to talk about whether there is a difference between faith and belief. and this is what was interesting to me, because there is this lovely and brilliant british theologian named e.p. sanders who talks about this exact issue.
english comes from two languages - anglo-saxon and normon french. in many cases this adds great richness to our language due to having many words for the same thing. we have words like pork and beef in addition to swine and cattle. the germans use the same words for both the animal and the food form. as sanders points out, calling our food swine-flesh, as they do, would strike english speakers as gross.
however, there are places in english where one form of speech has simply driven the other out. the case of faith and belief is one of them. we have no verb form of faith. "to believe" has taken its place. we can say "to have faith". but this is passive voice and misses out on the strength of what it means to BELIEVE in something. but in truth, "to believe" has the connotation of opinion, and faith does not. faith is more like the knowledge that comes from the heart, rather than the head. we have faith that our loved ones love us...and it isn't just from their actions, there is faith involved. we have faith in the direction of our govenrment (or maybe not just now). we have faith that people can change...these are not mere issues of opinion. certainly they are issues of opinion, but they are not MERE issues of opinion. there is something else behind what we feel when we care passionately about something we cannot prove. when we see something in a person, but we cannot say what it is. it is knowledge of the heart, not of the head. it is faith.
