What is more powerful, Knowledge or faith?

[Anonymous 3]

Suggestius wrote:

Well, it could be a good fit for the Philosophy section. Knowledge and faith are incomparable things. In my opinion is to believe is more powerful when immediate actions needed. When a military pilot is ramming the enemy’s aircraft does he know he will survive? He has no time to check himself. He just believes he will survive. The time span when the pilot is heading to the enemy he is driven only by faith.

I am sorry brother, I have to pull some of my Zen stuff into this. Not that I practice Zen, but that I learned a lot from it.

What you are talking in the quote above is the difference between reason/thinking and “acting”. It is the cornerstone of Zen: “what am I?” We usually believe we are thinking, therefore our thinking is protected from any dissension as if an attack on our being.

However we can do some simple experiment, like spending 15 seconds without thinking. Yet we are still here. Or something simple like drinking a cup of water. I once tried to understand all the “thinking” and “voluntary” things that where going on there.
To my amazement there is a lot going in simply drinking water. And intelligent things: like the inclination of the cup and the position of our mouth. And this without talking of the complex muscle movements that happen without our conscient mind “thinking” about them.

In fact what you are talking is not belief, but awareness, the intelligence behind intelligence.
Anthony de Mello says it better than I could:

I want to give you a taste of the difference between analysis and awareness, or information on the one hand and insight on the other. Information is not insight, analysis is not awareness, knowledge is not awareness. Suppose I walked in here with a snake crawling up my arm, and I said to you, “Do you see the snake crawling up my arm? I’ve just checked in an encyclopedia before coming to this session and I found out that this snake is known as a Russell’s viper. If it bit me, I would die inside half a minute. Would you kindly suggest ways and means by which I could get rid of this creature that is crawling up my arm”? Who talks like this? I have information, but I’ve got no awareness.

Or say I’m destroying myself with alcohol. “Kindly describe ways and means by which I could get rid of this addiction”. A person who would say that has no awareness. He knows he’s destroying himself, but he is not aware of it. If he were aware of it, the addiction would drop that minute. If I were aware of what the snake was, I wouldn’t brush it off my arm; it would get brushed off through me. That’s what I’m talking about, that’s the change I’m talking about.

[Anonymous 24]

Neither, Truth is most powerful, as knowledge of lies means nothing, and faith means even less.

[Anonymous 43]

not sure about powerful, but I think faith is dangerous. How many people have been killed over faith? …either convert to my faith or die, or my faith is better than yours so you must die, my faith prophesized that you would come and you are evil and must be destroyed.

Not too many people have been killed over knowledge. Lack of knowledge is a killer however.

[SheNoheartParticipant 144]

Knowledge…. cause women use that word faith a lot like some kind of invisible protection. silly cnts.

[hmskl’dParticipant 6406]

I am a slight skeptic of both faith and knowledge. In other words I keep an open mind believing (pardon the pun) that both are subject to change. Thinking back at the numerous things we were taught in school that have now been shown to be wrong. Everything from art to science to the prescription of statin drugs, some are even humorous .. eggs are bad and then they are good, van Gogh’s ear and don’t forget Pluto .. the list goes on for pages. The first computer class I ever took, the instructor walked into the room on day one and wrote on the board .. ‘remember, computers can’t and won’t ever think.” Well, maybe that will be proven to be essentially true .. but, I doubt it.
Faith and religion .. I do come from a religious background, my brother went to Seminary and was pastor of several large congregations. Yet, I am very skeptical of so many of those today who seem to know the answers, without question, and won’t entertain debate .. and answer any challenges with complex riddles that cannot proven either way .. using such terms as ‘buying religious favor’ or ‘planting a seed’ simply for fundraising. Many of these pastors, i.e. tv evangelists, and their flocks should never have qualified for tax exemptions as a Church. Who am I to judge, but to me, a true church is made up of outwardly humble worshipers who believe, yes, have a deep abiding faith .. but, don’t put the religion of money first and foremost, ever. You can sense a true church as opposed to a faux one, the minute you walk into it and meet the parishioners and staff.

[Anonymous 3]

Faith – “The snake will not bit me!”
Knowledge – “The snake is poisonous and known to kill people.”
Truth – “The snake is on my arm.”
Awareness – Brushes the snake out without thinking…

Yea, I quite agree with the truth, it is better than faith and knowledge.

[ResidentEvil7Participant 9550]

I’m a believer in proven facts. Faith is just a belief, and that doesn’t prove anything. To me faith is like wishful thinking. Faith is dangerous, because people murder over difference in faiths.

https://themanszone.webs.com/

[HemeriosParticipant 35]

Maybe change faith to spirituality, the difference between the two is faith follows someone’s words, spirituality is following your own road.

Cid Highwind the most badass MGTOW in gaming history and a great role model!

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