RSS feedASK YOURSELF: “Does faith need to be supported by good deeds?”
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What do you think about the subject?
- The Global Oneness Commitment is an eight-year project with the goal of “uniting people around the globe to mutual actions in order to not only save what we have, but to transform the planet thru an increase in spiritual awareness.”
- An article in the New York Times describes the fading religion of the Zoroastrians, who follow the Prophet Zarathustra. After more than 3,000 years, one of the most important monotheistic religions is going to become extinct. The NY Times links the fading of this faith to their belief that being good is just about enough. As they traveled the world, their attitude and hard work rewarded them with success and the ability to mix with other cultures. As a result, they were successful as a people but a failure as a long-term growing religion.
- An article in the Jakarta Post questions how far religion assumes a role in the elimination of corruption.
- In my online research I found a petition that calls for a world “not divided by religion, where human destiny is shaped by its deeds and not by its creeds.” Interestingly enough, there were about 260 signatures on it.
Share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment in the field below, and please remember that…
“dropping knowledge is a way of asking and answering questions that recognizes other viewpoints. When you ask in order to understand, when you answer in order to share, you are dropping knowledge.”
And we want your knowledge!
08 September 2006 | 07.43am (CEST) | posted by
Hili | |
TAGS Ethical Values & Responsibility | Religion & Spirituality | Philosophy
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September 8th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
True faith is supported by good deeds, any faith that is void of good deeds is not a faith at all. The bible says “faith without works is dead”, I think that says it all.
September 8th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
I think that if we have a Faith that directs our actions in good respectable fashion , then whats is wrong with that ? . The fact that being involved in Small Business enterprize that allows a Individual to freely express their intuitions is key to creating a fashion of hope in a persons mind , that leads to looking at the world in ways that enhance the furture of this world . To box society up like animals , and restrict their expression , first of all can’t be done , and leads to a person meeting this type of resistance with aggression . So life would be better served if leaders promoted society to be more creative , instead of just using society as a tool for production , and distribution of the societies needs . Small Business creation is the key to a happy healthy society , because if you are more directly connected to what you are contributing to your society you have more appreiciation and feel proud of the accomplishment of the contribution . This would be a way better approach to promoting the future , than to have people feeling accomplished by being a suicide Bomber . Lets look deep into our ways of servicing the needs of societies and select more areas that a Small Business sector could service , and promote this as a alternative solution to the poverty , and unrest that is the product of world hunger and human aggression .
September 8th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
- Phillips Brooks
in that sense, yes, even faith needs something to hold itself up to, to be balanced with, to be challenged by and to be supported for.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
I think faith needs to be supported by good deeds, but good deeds stand on their own and do not need faith.
September 9th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
the danger is to do good deeds
to get a reward
to feed ones ego
moral code is always human made
and good deeds fall under ethical behavior
it has nothing to do with faith
which stands alone
a person with true faith will always
show the fruit of this faith in a loving and giving way
September 15th, 2006 at 5:04 am
Perhaps the question betrays a fundamental misconception about the nature of faith. Saint Paul asserted that ‘Faith with- out works is dead’, and in this we see a fundamental dichotomy and a separation of belief and behavior.
If we were to accept that faith is a belief or a belief system then we are dealing with abstractions and the problem arises of a conflict between what one may believe, superego, and how one then ultimately acts, (ego). Within such a dualistic framework we must certainly ponder this question.
If on the other hand we were to consider that faith is not an abstraction but direct experiential knowledge of that which transcends mundane human preoccupations, and from which arises an all-pervasive compassion for suffering humanity and all life forms on this planet, we would have transcended also belief-based faith. Moral behavior also naturally arises from compassion, not as a contrived pretense but as the existential expression of our humanity.