- Level: International Baccalaureate
- Subject: Theory of Knowledge
- Word count: 1278
Faith as a Basis for Knowledge
Extracts from this document...
Introduction
2/13/12 Thoery of Knowledge Faith: Basis for Knowledge, Foundation for Religion, and The All-Encompassing Element of the World Over the course of this essay, the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis of knowledge in religion and in human sciences. Faith is a strange concept. It can be defined as a belief in something without any complete conclusive or absolutely adequate evidence. This definition relates faith right back to another area of knowledge; reason. This is so because if there were to be complete evidence behind something in life, one would not be using faith to understand it, they would be using reason. An example of this from everyday life is when one goes to sleep at night. There is no one hundred percent proof that one is going to wake up when they go to sleep. This means that, while small, there is always a chance that when you go to sleep, you won't wake up. Ever. But because there is an element of faith in every one of us (in this case, faith in the human body), we are able to peacefully go to sleep every night without any worry of not waking up the next day. ...read more.
Middle
To gain a degree that qualifies one to hold one of these positions, sometimes up to ten years of college, medical school, residencies, and internships is required. But it is all-necessary. These are the people who are taking care of you when you are sick, determining what is causing you to be ill, and if necessary, taking sharp objects and making precise incisions into you to eventually solve these problems. If one does not have faith that they know what they are doing and are going to do everything in their power to help you become better, then people would shy away from relying on the medical system for their needs and would try to take care of themselves on their own. People have faith in their doctor's abilities to heal them. If they didn't, there would be no need for them to continue to get medical attention. I have faith in the medical systems of America, as I'm sure many other people do as well. To truly understand the idea of using faith as a basis for knowledge, there are terms that one has to have a grasp or understanding of what they mean. ...read more.
Conclusion
To myself and to most people, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about elements is the periodic table that is full of them, but this is not the case in this situation. There are many elements of both knowledge and faith, but few that apply to both of them. For every claim in life, there is a counter-claim that typically has an equal amount of believers and a close to equal amount of validity. In this came, the counter-claim is as follows: Things in the universe take their own course, making having faith unnecessary. I think that this makes a lot of sense, but I also think that faith is necessary to some extent. Without faith, you have nothing to believe in, and without faith, there is no guessing in the world. Without faith in ones life, religion would not exist. For many people, religion is the reason they are able to get through their days. Without faith, people would just assume everything would work out. That takes the struggle and challenge out of life, making everything in the world a lot different than it is now. In conclusion, there are many strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in many different areas of knowledge. Overall, I believe that it is an acceptable thing to do. Solender 1 ...read more.
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