Actually there is a big problem to the idea of "let them be as long as they are happy". Normally people live their lives the way they like but in a close society we have today, that is a problem. It also depends on how far from reality one willing to tolerate, say your neighbor practicing voodoo and black magic because she believes it is real. But that makes her happy and you unhappy. So one day you decide to pull her over and explain that while she can believe anything she likes, you would like her to keep her daily ritual quiet and less visible. Extend that problem to an active black magic practitioners community that goes around on special day shouting and sprinkling magic dust. Would you then think let them be? What happen if your neighbor is elected to be the prime minister? Wouldn't that be scary?

Faith and knowledge are not mutually exclusive, no disagreement on this.

In Harry and Blondin case, Blondin had walked across the tightrope many time in earlier attempts alone successfully (this is so called knowledge, proof, reason). Although carrying a man on the back and perform the same act seems possible, however it never been done before, hence it takes faith for Harry to allow himself to be carried.

How did previous knowledge (walk alone on the tightrope successfully says three times) provide enough justification and could extrapolate that carrying another man on the shoulder would yield the same successful result?

In this example, no matters how many time (says 1000 time) that an alone act have been carried out successfully by Blondin, it can't provide enough evidence or proof to Harry that he would reach the other end successfully (two persons act). Will he know if Blondin would not be tired, not stable and all? He won't, he just have faith and believe in his friend.

Your example on chair is good too. People has faith that the chair they attempt to sit will support their weight even this is the first time they see such chair. In some rare scenarios, the chair does break and the people would fall over, I have seems this happened with my own eyes before.

Faith doesn't warrant the correctness of one's belief, as it is not based on absolute proof, just like the one sitting on a chair which break. The main point here is in many real life scenarios, we need to make decision and justification without solid proof (there is no such thing as we could reason, proof everything), but based on our experience, knowledge and also ..... some faith.

This post has been edited by nice.rider: Apr 15 2010, 11:58 AM

Then the black magic practitioner will be a fearsome leader. If she/he is unhappy, she/he will just curse you, and everybody will try to get rid of you because you are 'cursed'. Isn't that simple and efficient way to get rid of ppl and be in power?

The 'black magic practitioner' could be replace by Christian, Islam, Jew ... any religion you can think of. That is the power of religion, to unite ppl with the power of fear.

That leads me to the famous quote

The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.

Ed Gibbon.

Looks like human thinking has not changed much even after that. Only two things are certain/true in life, we are dying and income tax department are forever after our money If our thinking has not changed a lot over time, or else many would not easily being duped into cult ,religion ,direct sales cum ponzi scheme or pseudoscience.

ms

if human were that smart, long time ago we were already vacation in Mars sipping cocktail, or skydiving in Pandora planet. So just accept the fact human are easy to be manipulated and stupid.

Human can be both. Either to manipulate or being manipulate. We are stupid compare to our humility. We are smart compare to other animals.

there are no such comparison between human and animal in terms of reasoning skills. reason is only given to human by God and not to animal. animal only have instinct. they live only to fulfill their needs to continue their life. but for us human, we live to serve our purpose and worship to God.

but if the human cant use their own reason to distinguish between good and bad, they are no different than animal.

---

Added on April 27, 2010, 8:30 ami agree.human mind has it own limitation.but human keep discovering and learning. and learning process is not something that is gifted.

This post has been edited by azerroes: Apr 27 2010, 08:30 AM

Try to compare it,
todays development of technology and so on is one impossible thingy to our ancestors few hundred years ago
Imagine what will ppl from hundred years ago think about a computer that can work by using only electric

Human do have limitation, but thats not up to us to decide how much they can do
I believe we wont know our possible potential by measuring

For now we can think human live in the mars is absurd/impossible/nonsense/dreaming/etc, who knows what happen N years later

When did god give this reasoning skills to human? 10K years ago? Or 10 million years ago?

As how Thomas Merton put it, “We can help one another to find out the meaning of life, no doubt. But in the last analysis the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself'.” Here are two famous quotes about Faith and Reason:

“Faith is best defined as expecting the best until the worst has been proved.”

— Gerald Ensley

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God, who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use.”

― Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)