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Originally Posted by Geshtinnanna  I can't speak for other Atheists. I can speak for myself. I actually just replied to a thread like this on another forum. I have no faith. As someone with a mental illness I recognize my limitations in faith. If I were to say I have faith, it would be in myself. That I can judge 100% correctly. I have proof of myself and experience with myself. Everything else is up for chance and doubt of some form or another. Plus once you have been severely abused as a child, you tend to view things very differently. As a child, my budding faith was taken from me and has never returned. |
I find it interesting how most people associate faith with belief and certainty. You say you have faith in yourself which I translate as you trust yourself. Trust also relates to belief and certainty. And so related with this are mistrust, doubt, and uncertainty(or chance as you said it).
To me, none of that has to do with it for faith isn't a psychological trait. I'm filled with mistrust, doubt, and uncertainty. And, yet, I have a sense of faith. As far as I can tell, faith is what is left after mistrust, doubt, and uncertainty have replaced all your hopes and assumptions. I'd say that faith is only possible to the degree that its been challenged and only when its become unmoored from any certainty(individual or collective).
I may have a fair amount of mental illness, but(as far as I know) I was never abused as a child. However, I do feel like a very wounded person, and I've come to associate my sense of faith with my woundedness. If I hadn't spent most of my life mired in depression and suicidal at times, then I wouldn't have had the experiences I had that my faith is based upon.
Obviously your experiences are quite different. It seems like faith can mean anything and everything. Faith latches onto whatever catches our imagination and for you issues of trust seem to be what are the fodder for your 'faith'.
Have you ever read any of the depth psychologists such as Hillman?