The Theological Virtue of Faith

[chipmunkspunk]

The problem I have with the Christian belief system is its neglection of the path of pure self interest as a valid telos. When Nietzsche tried to avoid nihilism I think he succeeded because an individual who frees themself from the "herd mentality" is able to adopt service to self as their telos. Alasdair MacIntyre concedes this in After Virtue, chapter 11- he points out Socrates couldn't defeat the sophist Callicles without "the republic" as a new social context for rational happiness.

[stmichael71]

I don't know if that is a valid criticism, in fact. One could argue the highest self-interest is in God, as it were. Happiness lies in love of the divine - it perfects the self. More detail on my criticism of Nietzsche notwithstanding, I think he does succumb to nihilism, in line with criticisms of him by Heidegger. However, MacIntyre makes clear the question of evaluating Nietzsche and Aristotle relies on a comparative genealogy of their respective first principles (Socrates does this).

[hallelujaallahuakbar]

Belief without evidence is always stupid.

[HOPINGAGAINSTHOPE]

Evidence without belief is impossible.

[stmichael71]

If you might have listened, I've already answered that in the video.

[hallelujaallahuakbar]

stmichael71 : I did watch the video, but I found it very hard to follow as the audio seemed out of sync.

Care to sum up why belief without evidence is a good thing?

[stmichael71]

Simply put: faith is NOT belief without evidence. If you had listened to the video, I make that clear.

[stmichael71]

You are quite right about the video's quality. I apologize for the video's quality - I just direct uploaded it and thought the video quality was fine.

[hallelujaallahuakbar]

stmichael71 : So you have faith in God because you have evidence for God?

[stmichael71]

I think faith and reason compliment each other. This is primarily about articles of faith, whereas God's existence is primarily one of natural reason (not faith). As such, I think there is certainly demonstrable proofs of God's existence. But the main point of THIS video is the reasonability and virtue of faith. Here there is no demonstration, but nevertheless it holds what it does based on a reasonableness proper to itself.