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JAC wrote:
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and
faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
The way I see it, faith is a choice in the sense that we can choose to feed it, or feed its opponent.
I believe this is what Pres. Uchtdorf was trying to teach us last conference. I dont think he was scolding or turning coat on those who faithfully question at all, I think he was addressing the cynics and skeptics.
JAC wrote:The way I see it, faith is a choice in the sense that we can choose to feed it, or feed its opponent.
I am a proponent of what I call limited choice. I believe that we act on some things and are acted upon by other things. I believe that in the context of your example people may develop stronger admirable qualities through practice, concerted effort, and even choosing the sources of opinion we are exposed to.
I also believe that making this sort of charge requires a skillset and awareness that not everyone has.
My biggest fear (and this happens far too regularly) is that people will assume that because there is an element of choice then everyone gets what they want/choose/deserve. Ironically this assumption in itself feeds the evil wolf inside of us. It can cause us to swell our hearts with arrogance, false pride, superiority, and ego and reduce our capacity for kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, and compassion. It can justify us in condemning the “other” who suffers because, if they wanted it badly enough, they could choose to be just like us and remove their own suffering.
The idea that we get what we deserve is a conceit of relative luxury and has huge and numerous negative consequences. It also has great and magnificent power to motivate and drive progress.
Opposition in all things . . .
Quote:Crconk wrote:
When something tragic happens, certainly it can affect people’s faith – but I assert that their faith is affected by their interpretation of those tragic events, not the events themselves. Since we’re not omniscient, we are either going to have to make stuff up in our minds about why this horrible thing happened, or we’re going to have to sacrifice the temptation to make stuff up and sit in our discomfort waiting for Christ. It’s hard to do and nobody but Christ does it perfectly, but when I can do it, He works miracles.
For me, faith in God and trust in God are two very separate things. I have great faith in God — in his existence, in his power, in his abilities. I struggle with trust. Wait .. Hmmm .. I don’t struggle .. I just DONT trust. I don’t trust God to always have my interests as a high priority.
As I have reflected more and pondered on my previous comment about sin not being the cause of bad things happening to people, I have recognized the utter toxicity of the idea. I think there are at least a few of us here who can look at an event in our lives related to our own faith crises and say that we wondered what we did wrong or how we offended God or why God doesn’t love us. The idea that bad things happen because of sin is a lie that destroys faith and sometimes lives. Of course, I also recognize that it’s natural for a religious individual to have such thoughts. If there is a Satan, this is one of the few things I could attribute to him because of its ability to destroy faith so easily. I agree DJ – with the caveat that some bad things that happen are the result of sin (things we do that we shouldn’t do). Learning to move from formulas to patterns is important. We have an excellent post about that in our archives, but I can’t link it right now. If anyone can find it, please provide the link in this thread.
DarkJedi wrote:As I have reflected more and pondered on my previous comment about sin not being the cause of bad things happening to people, I have recognized the utter toxicity of the idea. I think there are at least a few of us here who can look at an event in our lives related to our own faith crises and say that we wondered what we did wrong or how we offended God or why God doesn’t love us. The idea that bad things happen because of sin is a lie that destroys faith and sometimes lives. Of course, I also recognize that it’s natural for a religious individual to have such thoughts. If there is a Satan, this is one of the few things I could attribute to him because of its ability to destroy faith so easily.
Again as I have reflected more, I wanted to add that I do recognize there are consequences to our choices – touch a hot stove element and you’re going to get burned. I don’t equate natural consequences of poor choices with punishment from God.
I’ve long been unfomcortable with the “faith is a choice” idea, and I think I’ve finally figured out why: because you can choose to have faith or belief in anything. The 9/11 terrorists had faith. How do we know that our faith is right and their faith is wrong? Joni wrote:I’ve long been unfomcortable with the “faith is a choice” idea, and I think I’ve finally figured out why: because you can choose to have faith or belief in
anything. The 9/11 terrorists had faith. How do we know that our faith is right and their faith is wrong?
Interesting.Joni wrote:I’ve long been unfomcortable with the “faith is a choice” idea, and I think I’ve finally figured out why: because you can choose to have faith or belief in
anything. The 9/11 terrorists had faith. How do we know that our faith is right and their faith is wrong? Yet this highlights my point that our ability to choose a particular faith / worldview is limited. I cannot choose to believe in the ideology of the 9/11 terrorists. That mentality is just so foreign to my life experiences and everything that I have ever known. My internal lens that I use to interpret the world and make decisions is colored against such things. OTOH, perhaps they (the terrorists) would be just as limited in choosing to be Mormon. Perhaps their life experiences and worldview simply would not accept such a choice.
I think a big part of why we are here on earth is to find out the intrinsic value of a human soul and discover the moral rights and duties we have toward each other. We measure our faith against those values, rights, and principles to determine whether that faith is in something truthful or not. It’s fallacious to view all faith as equally valid without doing an analysis of how that faith aligns with the values, rights, and morals that we discover. Each of must do this for ourselves. God can and does confirm this through the Spirit to give us an anchor to judge by as well in my experience. I agree that not all faith views are equally good – but each is equally valid to the people who see the world differently. My definition of good is the key to that statement – and, while I categorically condemn any faith view that justifies something like suicide bombing, I also understand that such views are woven deeply into the mindsets and lives of many “true believers”. In fact, I would assert that the existence of such mindsets is perhaps the best argument possible in the need to keep an open mind to the ability of doctrine (what is taught) to change and evolve – the best proof that “on-going revelation” trumps entrenched orthodoxy (even if it causes MAJOR changes occasionally.
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