RE: virus: Phaith page on C-Realm.com

Carl Wagener (CarlW@Hermit.net)
Fri, 4 Jun 1999 13:32:37 -0500

If I recall correctly, this is exactly the reason that "Phaith" developed in the first place.

Faith is the capacity to accept something despite a lack of evidence - sometimes in the face of contrary evidence. And denying that this is what they do is a part of the brain disease that faith-filled people are afflicted with. So asking them about it is unlikely to elicite useful responses. As The Devil's Dictionary described it, Faith, n, Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. What believers do to reason is far more obscene than anything anyone here has said about faith.

We have not redefined faith in the slightest, we leave it with its existing (dirty) and unconstructive meanining, while defining a second word, Phaith, which sounds the same, to cover the very different situation where something is accepted without full proof, on the basis that this is needed to function effectively in an uncertain world, and where proof (or disproof) can be sought at a later stage (if needed).

The difference seems clear enough to me.

TheHermit

"Oh, sure, you can use FACTS to prove ANYTHING that's even REMOTELY true!" -- Homer Simpson
Faith doesn't require even the hint of a fact to take root, and once rooted, removes the ability for the person infected to see its harmful effects or to toss it out. -- TheHermit

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf Of Richard Brodie
Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 10:35
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: RE: virus: Phaith page on C-Realm.com

I think it you polled 100 people who say faith is an important part of their
lives, not all would say they had dogmatic insistence on the truth of any
proposition. The definition seems pejorative and alienating to me. I think
it would be better if we were to embrace the usual spelling of the word and
frame it in the way we believe to be constructive.

Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme" Free newsletter! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf Of KMO
Sent: Friday, June 4, 1999 10:11 AM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: Re: virus: Phaith page on C-Realm.com

Phaith is faith minus dogmatic insistence on the truth of any proposition.

http://c-realm.com/bookshelf/phaith.cgi

-KMO

Richard Brodie wrote:

> I'm not sure there's a difference between "phaith" and faith, other
that
> your personal distaste for the word.
>
> Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
> Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
> Free newsletter! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm