Religion Essay Sample on Blind Faith vs. Informed Faith

Published: 2021-08-11
550 words
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George Washington University
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Faith is a powerful tool and a central dogma in religion. It informs the beleivers conception of the higher power and dictates their relationship. However, two faces often represent faith, and these are blind faith and informed faith. In general terms, faith is to believe in something not seen as if it were real. Irrespective of the differences existing in various religions, they all share one thing in common, and that is faith. Faith which is based on religious understanding is the firm belief in the higher powers such as the deities based on spiritual conviction instead of proof.

The core difference between blind and informed faith lies in the motivation and nature of conviction. Blind faith has more insight where informed faith relies on facts through meditation and clear understanding on the context of practice. It means that informed faith is sensible and verifiable and in most cases, it is understood as faith with limits. Blind faith, on the other hand, relies only on personal understanding and neglects the verifiable facts. Using an example from the Christian Bible, it is easy to understand the difference between the two. The story of Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days followed by temptation is an excellent example of informed faith. When the devil asked Jesus to turn the stones into bread since he was the son of God, though Jesus knew that it was not impossible, he found the request insensible and so this is informed. He did not decline this offer because he could not do it, but because if Jesus did it, then he would be doing it from personal knowledge of the context. Therefore, with blind faith, someone can quickly make irrational decisions.

Informed faith uses intelligence to make sure that answers to existing questions make sense whereas blind faith does not seek any form of concise information to make sense of the circumstance. It means that one person will claim to know God without reading the Bible and this is what leads to blind faith, while another individual will take time to study the Bible and make sense of the circumstances surrounding him and this is what defines informed faith. In this case, the difference between the two exists from the idea of information. Blind faith is agreeing to an opinion and seeking no contemplation on how to approach an idea whereas informed faith is using intelligence to contemplate on an idea and then making a decision on what to do with the idea. Hence this builds on the intelligence and sensible characteristics of faith. Informed faith is to believe wisely, and blind faith is to believe ignorantly. It is because of this that wisdom is necessary to understand the existence of God.

Therefore, in comparing and contrasting the difference between blind faith and informed faith, the significant similarity is that they all have the aspect of believing in doctrines or having complete trust in someone. It is the difference however that shows the limiting factors behind blind faith and why it can be termed as misguided faith sometimes. It is an important thing to have faith, but this can be dangerous if it is not well informed or if it merely lacks wisdom and it can result in faith used pejoratively hence lacking any effect.

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